Nine persons, including a couple, were killed in separate road mishaps since Saturday night.
In the first shocking incident, a speeding truck hit a motorcycle-borne couple on the highway in Kosi Kalan police station area of Mathura and dragged the husband for almost two kilometres before it was intercepted by the police.
Both husband and wife died in the mishap.
The truck driver was arrested.
According to reports, Deepak Kumar of Ramnagar village under Hodal police station of Palwal was going from Kosi Kalan towards Hodal at around 2:30 am on Sunday. His wife Srishti was also with him. When they were crossing Pashupati factory under Kosi Kalan police station, a speeding truck hit the motorcycle and Srishti fell on the road and died on the spot while Deepak was dragged for two kilometres before a police party patrolling on the highway chased the truck and arrested the driver. The bodies were sent for autopsy.
In Kushinagar, a speeding container truck crushed three people to death. According to reports, the incident took place in the Hata Kotwali area. Reports said that a container truck coming at a high speed crushed three people near Jolhinia petrol pump located on National Highway 28 in Hata late on Saturday night. All the three died on the spot.
After mowing down the youths, the driver fled and in the process hit two vehicles parked on the road. The container dragged both the vehicles for some distance before the driver abandoned the vehicle and escaped.
Another such road accident was reported from Kannauj where a Roadways bus crushed a youth, killing him on the spot.
The accident took place in Gursahaiganj area of Sarai Daulat under Kotwali police station late on Saturday night.
The local residents staged a protest after the accident and forced all the passengers to step out of the vehicle after which they torched the bus. The driver had already fled after abandoning the bus.
The police registered a case and sent the body for autopsy.
A collision between a tanker and a motorcycle took place on the Bahraich-Lucknow highway in Jarwal road police station area of Bahraich district late Saturday night. Two friends died in the mishap while one another was battling for his life at the King George’s Medical University Trauma Centre in Lucknow. The police reached the spot on getting information and seized the tanker.
Farhan (24), Rashid Qureshi (22) and Gufran (25), all of Mohalla Sarai under the Jarwal road police station and close friends, were going to a dhaba on Saturday night when their motorcycle collided with a tanker coming from Lucknow near Rithora on Bahraich-Lucknow road. All three were rushed to the community health centre in Mustafabad where the doctors pronounced Rashid Qureshi and Farhan dead and referred Gufran to Lucknow.
Police launched a search for the tanker driver.
In the last mishap, a scooty rider died after he was knocked down by a speeding car owned by Bharatiya Janata Party’s former MP Bharatendra Singh in Bijnor. Reports said that Deepak Kumar of village Swahedi was killed in a collision with the Creta car of the former BJP MP near village Swahedi on Bijnor-Najibabad highway. The youth was returning from the farm to his home by scooty. Police took the car into custody. The former MP was going from Najibabad to Bijnor at the time of the accident.
