Thirteen people died of burns and 43 sustained injuries due to a vehicle pile-up in dense fog on the Yamuna Expressway during the wee hours of Tuesday. Eight buses and three smaller vehicles collided at around 4:30 am, which resulted in the inferno, a police official informed. The accident occurred under the Baldev Police Station jurisdiction.
"The vehicles collided due to low visibility on the Agra-to-Noida side of the Yamuna Expressway. Some vehicles caught fire. All the injured have been sent to the hospital," Mathura Senior Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar said. Visuals from the spot revealed charred buses and cars, reduced to mere mangled shells. Cranes were called in to remove them from the road.
"We are preserving the DNA of charred bodies to match them with the information provided by their relatives. We have identified three dead passengers and are contacting their relatives," Kumar said.
District Magistrate Chandra Prakash Singh said arrangements were being made for the last rites of those whose bodies have been identified and treatment is being provided to the injured.
The DM ordered a four-member team to investigate the tragedy and submit a report in two days. The committee will be headed by Additional District Magistrate (Administration) Amresh Kumar. The SSP, who was at the site, said an unidentified driver was booked.
Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer Dr Radha Vallabh said two separate teams of doctors had been appointed for the post-mortem of the deceased and the collection of DNA samples. He said the police have delivered 17 body bags for post-mortem. Some of the seriously injured were sent to SN Medical College and Hospital in Agra, while some were referred to Delhi.
Also Read: Fog causes vehicle pileup in Haryana; two dead
The CMO said 43 people had been brought to the Joint District Hospital in Vrindavan. Of these, 10 were women. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in a post on X in Hindi, expressed his condolences to the kin of the deceased.
"The loss of life in the road accident on the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura district is extremely tragic and heart-breaking. My deepest condolences are with the bereaved families," he wrote.
"I have instructed the district administration officials to ensure proper treatment for the injured. I pray to Lord Ram to grant peace to the departed souls and a speedy recovery to the injured," Adityanath said. The chief minister announced Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each to the injured.
On Monday, fog led to the deaths of three people, two of them police officers, in two separate road accidents involving multiple vehicles in Haryana's Sonipat and Nuh districts.
In Sonipat, a female assistant sub-inspector of police was killed when the car in which she was travelling for work hit a truck that was taking a wrong turn on the highway.
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