Half-a-dozen people, including a man and his maternal grandson and a father-son duo, died in separate road mishaps in the last 24 hours.
In the first incident in Unnao, a loader carrying milk overturned after ramming the divider on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, killing a man and his son. The accident occurred in Behta Mujawar police station area on Tuesday morning. The loader was moving towards Lucknow. The accident occured as the driver reportedly dozed off.
Ramprasad (60), who was a resident of Chachiha village in Lalganj police station area of Rae Bareli, was the loader driver. On Tuesday morning, he was going to Lucknow with his son Ramnarayan (30).
Ramprasad, who was driving the loader, dozed off near Sablikheda village. As a result, the loader went out of control and overturned after hitting the divider of Sharda Canal bridge.
Ramnarayan, who was sitting beside him, fell off and died on the spot. Ramprasad fell into the 20-feet-deep ditch.
The police took him to the CHC where he was pronounced dead. Both the bodies were later sent for autopsy.
In another incident in Unnao, a speeding car hit a bike on the Lucknow-Kanpur highway, killing a man and his maternal grandson and leaving his son-in-law injured. The errant driver managed to speed off.
Reports said Deshraj alias Nanhke (60), who was a resident of Maroinainpur of Purva Kotwali area, had gone to the house of his daughter Lakshmi, a resident of Tikvamau in Ajgain Kotwali area, to hand over sweets and other gifts to her on the occasion of Nag Panchami/Gudiya.
On Monday evening, he, along with his son-in-law Kailash (35) and grandson Shiva (11), was going to the house of another daughter, Shaily, in Katra village of Dahi police station area for the same reason. On the Lucknow-Kanpur highway, a speeding car moving from Lucknow to Kanpur hit his bike. All the three occupants of the bike were seriously injured.
Purva CO Vikramajit Singh, who shifted the injured to the district hospital, said Deshraj and Shiva were pronounced dead upon arrival while Kailash was referred to the medical college in Kanpur.
The location of the car owner was traced in LDA Colony in Lucknow and a police team was sent to arrest the driver and impound the vehicle.
Elsewhere in Fatehpur, 15-year-old Kishore aka Kallu Prajapati, who was a resident of Baruha, was run over by a speeding car near Janta Inter College in Ghazipur locality on Tuesday morning.
The police rushed the teenager to the district hospital where he was pronounced dead. The car driver was chased by the police and caught near Radhanagar police outpost. Kallu was the eldest among his siblings — Manish, Sandeep and Gudiya Devi.
In another mishap in Agra, a homeguard was killed after being knocked down by a car in Nagla Chandan area in Jalesar Marg in Khandauli under Etmadpur police station area. Reports said that the speeding car first hit a stray cattle and then ploughed into the homeguard early Tuesday morning. Rampal Yadav of Thana Barhan was going to join his duty when the tragedy struck.