Prayagraj: In a span of just 24 hours, three separate road accidents involving pilgrims traveling to or from the Maha Kumbh took place. The accidents claimed multiple dead and left several injured.
The first accident took place in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, where a Bolero car collided with a bus, killing ten people. In Gujarat’s Dahod district, a tourist van carrying pilgrims rammed into a stationary truck, resulting in four fatalities and six injuries. Meanwhile, in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad district, a bus caught fire on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway, leaving one person dead.
10 killed in bus-car crash in Prayagraj
The first incident took place late Friday night in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, where a Bolero car carrying 10 devotees from Chhattisgarh’s Korba district collided head-on with a bus on a highway in the Meja police station area. All ten occupants of the car lost their lives, while those traveling in the bus sustained minor injuries.
Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Vivek Chandra Yadav said that the incident and identified the deceased based on Aadhaar cards and family inputs. The victims included Somnath (28), Ishwari Prasad Jaiswal (56), Bhagirathi Jaiswal (43), Santosh Soni (55) and others.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed his condolences through a post on X, offering sympathies to the bereaved families and directing officials to ensure proper treatment for the injured. The bodies were sent to SRN Hospital in Prayagraj for autopsy.
4 pilgrims dead in road accident in Gujarat
In the second accident, four pilgrims returning from Maha Kumbh were killed, and six others injured when their tourist van rammed into a stationary truck on the Indore-Ahmedabad highway in Gujarat’s Dahod district early on Saturday morning. The accident occurred around 2.15 am near Limkheda. The victims, including a woman, were residents of Ankleshwar in Bharuch district and Dholka in Ahmedabad district.
The deceased were identified as Devraj Nakum (49), his wife Jasuba (47), and Dholka residents Sidhraj Dabhi (32) and Ramesh Goswami (47). Police reported that the van, carrying ten passengers, crashed into the truck parked on the side of the road. The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Pilgrim dies as bus catches fire in Firozabad
The third incident took place in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad district in the early hours of Saturday. A bus carrying 52 pilgrims caught fire on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway around 4 am. The passengers were returning to Rajasthan after visiting Ayodhya and taking a dip at the Sangam during the Maha Kumbh.
According to superintendent of police Ravi Shankar Prasad, while most passengers managed to escape, a 33-year-old man named Pawan Sharma from Rajasthan’s Nagaur district tragically lost his life. Sharma, who was asleep at the time, was unable to escape and was trapped in the burning bus. The other passengers were later sent to their destinations in another vehicle.
