The festive rush on Uttar Pradesh’s roads turned fatal this weekend as at least seven people lost their lives and more than a dozen were injured in separate accidents across Bareilly, Amethi, and Etah, police said.
Alone in Bareilly, three people were killed and ten others injured when a van and a bus collided head-on near Barheypura village on the Bareilly-Bisalpur Road under Bhuta police station limits around 1:30 am on Saturday. Police said the passengers were returning home for Diwali.
Who are the deceased across the Pradesh?
The deceased were identified as driver Rakesh (35), Gaurav (19), and Jitendra (20), according to Bareilly Superintendent of Police (South) Anshika Verma.
Emergency responders, including police and fire personnel, worked through the night to rescue trapped passengers using metal cutters to pull them out of the mangled van.
Preliminary investigations point to speeding and a failed attempt to overtake. Officials said four of the injured remain in critical condition.
Deepak Kumar (20) and Devendra Kumar (22) were killed in Amethi when a speeding truck rammed into their motorcycle near Chaheti Nagar on the Lucknow-Varanasi Highway in Jagdishpur area on Saturday morning.
“The truck has been seized and the bodies sent for post-mortem,” said Station House Officer (SHO) Dhirendra Yadav, per a Hindustan Times report.
Meanwhile, in Etah, two separate motorcycle crashes on Friday night left two dead and four others seriously injured.
The first happened near Bahgo village in Jaithra area, where two motorcycles collided head-on, killing 70-year-old Shyamveer and injuring his grandson Himanshu along with two others.
On the other front, Satyam (16) died when his motorcycle crashed with another while heading to a petrol pump late at night.
