Eight persons were killed while about two dozen others received serious injuries when a Uttar Pradesh Roadways bus collided with a gas tanker in Sambhal district on Wednesday due to reduced visibility because of fog.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath condoled the deaths in the accident and directed the local authorities to provide the best possible treatment to the injured.
“A Roadways bus of Aligarh depot collided head-on with a gas tanker on the Agra-Moradabad road on Wednesday. Eight persons, including both the drivers were killed on the spot while 22 others were injured. The number of deaths could go up,” Superintendent of Police Chakresh Mishra said on Wednesday.
There were about 42 passengers on the bus when the mishap took place on Agra-Moradabad National Highway when the bus collided with the gas tanker near Madhaya in village Manakpur in Sambhal police station area.
The impact of the collision was so intense that half of the bus was completely damaged while the front of the gas tanker was mangled.
Low visibility due to dense fog on the highway is believed to be behind the accident.
The gas-filled tanker was going to Moradabad from Aligarh while the bus was going from Moradabad to Aligarh.
The tanker was trying to overtake a sugarcane laden tractor-trolley when it collided with the bus.
The deceased were identified as Jitendra Kumar (30) of Bijnor, Rohit Rana (25) of Chandausi posted as constable in Dial-112 in Naraura, Bulandshahr, Chhote Singh (45) of Bulandshahr, Anil Kumari (45) of Bahjoi, Saleem (32), driver of the bus hailing from Qwarsi in Aligarh, tanker driver Aslam (35) and Suresh Rajput (45), both from Moradabad, and Om Prakash (55) of Rampur.