Six members of a family died and two were severely injured on Tuesday morning when their SUV collided head-on with a school bus moving on the wrong side of an expressway here, a senior police official said.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic (Ghaziabad), Ramanand Kushwaha said the accident occurred on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway around 6 am.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the loss of lives in the accident. In a tweet in Hindi, his office said, “#UPCM @myogiadityanath has expressed deep sorrow over the loss of lives in the road accident in district Ghaziabad.”
The chief minister instructed officials of the district administration to immediately take the injured to a hospital and provide them with proper treatment. He also wished for the speedy recovery of the injured.
Kushwaha said the bus had gone to Delhi and was plying on the wrong side of the expressway after refilling CNG near the Ghazipur border. The family was travelling in the SUV, which was headed for Gurugram from Meerut, he said.
Two people are undergoing treatment for severe injuries, the official said, adding that there were eight people in the car. “The bus driver (identified as Prem Pal) has been arrested. He was at complete fault as he was moving on the wrong side,” Kushwaha said.
The deceased have been identified as Narendra (45), his wife Anita (40), sons Deepanshu (15) and Himanshu (12), niece Vanshika (7) and sister-in-law Babita (35).
Narendra’s brother Dharmendra (40) and his son Kartik (5) sustained severe injuries and are undergoing treatment at a private hospital, police said.
The bus was attached to the Bal Bharti School of Noida, Additional DCP Kushwah said, adding there were no students in it at the time of the accident.
DCP (Rural) Shubham Patel told PTI that the damaged vehicles have been cleared and the blood-stained portion of the expressway cleaned.
Meanwhile, the Vande Bharat Express train was pelted with stones once again near Sohawal in Ayodhya on Tuesday morning. The window panes of the bogies were broken but no passenger was hurt in the stone-pelting.
At the same time, RPF and local police reached the spot soon after being informed about the incident. The train was going towards Lucknow from Ayodhya when some anti-social elements started pelting it with stones. Efforts were underway by the Government Railway Police (GRP) to identify and arrest the accused.
