Patiala: Four of a wedding party killed in road mishap in dense fog

The accident took place when a Toyata Innova carrying eight members of a wedding party collided head-on with a mini canter loaded with apples that was coming from Jammu.

Four persons of a wedding party were killed, while four others have sustained multiple serious injuries in a road mishap that had reportedly taken place due to dense fog at Sunairheri village on Patiala-Cheeka road here on Tuesday.

Police and locals at the accident spot on Patiala-Cheeka road on Tuesday. (Bharat Bhushan/HT)

The accident took place at around 8.30am, when a Toyata Innova carrying eight members of a wedding party collided head-on with a mini canter loaded with apples that was coming from Jammu.

The deceased have been identified as Sukhpal Singh, 62; Harbhajan Singh, 55; Gurmeet Singh, 55; and Ranjit Singh, 25 (driver of the Innova). All the deceased hailed from Habbadi village of Kaithal district in Haryana and were going to attend a wedding at Nawanshahr in Punjab.

The impact of the accident was such that the car is completely damaged and it took around one hour for the police and the local residents to pull out the bodies.

Sadar station house officer (SHO) Jaswinder Singh Tiwana said that the eyewitnesses told the police that the accident took place due to dense fog. “The drivers of both the vehicles could not see each other and collided,” they said.

“As per the doctors, all the injured persons are in a critical condition,” the police said. Police have registered a case against the canter driver, who fled from the spot after the accident, under Sections 304-A (causing death by negligence) and 279 (rash driving) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).