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Eight killed in 12-vehicle pile-up on Rohtak highway
Several accidents were reported from highways in the Gangetic plains which was covered by dense fog on Monday morning, reducing the visibility to bare minimum.
Eight persons, including seven women, were killed in a vehicle pile-up due to dense fog on the Rohtak-Rewari highway in Haryana on Monday, police said. At least 10 others were injured in the accident that took place in Jhajjar district in which over 12 vehicles, including a school bus, were involved, they said.
Several accidents were reported from highways in the Gangetic plains which was covered by dense fog on Monday morning, reducing the visibility to bare minimum. Former state health minister Satyanarayan Lathar was killed in Jind after an unidentified vehicle hit him when he was walking home from his petrol pump late on Sunday night, police said.
According to police, all the victims in the Jhajjar accident were from Kirdodh village and were going to Najafgarh in Delhi in a jeep to condole the death of a relative there. The jeep collided with a pick-up vehicle and was hit by a speeding truck from behind, police said, adding that the injured were taken to Pt BD Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Rohtak.
“Eight persons were killed in the accident that took place in the early morning. At least 12 vehicles were involved in the pile-up,” said Seema Devi, station house officer, Jhajjar police station.
The pile-up occurred after the two vehicles collided on Badli Flyover on National Highway-71 and around 10 more piled up behind them due to poor visibility, leading to more injuries. There was a school bus involved in the accident, which led to a two-kilometre traffic jam, but none of the passengers was injured, police said.
Seven women and one man who were sitting in the back of the jeep were killed, while two more sitting in the same vehicle were critically injured. The deceased have been identified as Satpal Kumar (48), his wife Kanta Devi (40), Santosh Devi (52), Prem Lata (50), Laxmi Devi (63), Ram Kali (35), Sheela Devi (61) and Khajani Devi (54). They were cremated in the village Monday afternoon amid a pall of gloom.
“A woman in Satpal’s relation had died in Najafgarh, for which the entire family was going there to pay our condolence. The visibility was very poor due to fog. Only 20 minutes in journey, we were hit by a truck from behind and all this happened,” said Dheeraj, son of Santosh.
The Haryana government has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the kin of the deceased. “Compensation of Rs 2 lakh will be given to the kin of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh to those severely injured and Rs 50,000 to those with minor injuries,” Haryana minister OP Dhankar said.
The northern part of the country, including Haryana and Punjab, has been reeling under the cold wave for the past one week. “Cold weather combined with the availability of moisture will result in foggy conditions over Northwest India. This dense fog is likely to reduce visibility over Punjab, Haryana, North Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, resulting in difficulty for commuters in the morning and noon hours,” stated Skymet, a private weather forecasting agency.
Dense to very dense fog was observed at isolated places over Punjab and West Rajasthan and moderate fog at isolated places over Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and West Uttar Pradesh in the morning hours. Visibility in Amritsar and Ganganagar was 50 metres in the morning while in Delhi’s Palam it was 200 meters.
(With agency inputs)
