Nagpur: Six women workers from Chhattisgarh and three children were crushed to death in their sleep after a packed pickup van ferrying them to Nagpur rammed into a truck on NH-53 in Bhandara district of Maharashtra early Friday. Thirteen others were injured, some of them critical, triggering fears of a higher toll.Most of the women were from Rajnandgaon, Kabirdham districts of Chhattisgarh. They had gone home to celebrate Teej and were returning to Nagpur for Pola festival when tragedy struck, said police. The Chhattisgarh govt announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to kin of deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured.The accident occurred around 3.30am as the truck was moving out of a petrol pump near a roadside dhaba on the Sakoli-Lakhani stretch of the highway. The high-speed collision turned the pickup vehicle into a mangled heap trapped under the truck chassis. “Both vehicles swerved for 250m due to the impact before coming to a halt. The bodies were tossed on the road as the pickup van’s roof was torn apart. The victims were asleep when the crash happened,” said an official.The Lakhani police team, highway safety patrol and villagers used JCBs to extricate the damaged pick-up van.Police said the truck was being rashly driven by Amarsingh Yadav, 37, a resident of UP’s Pratapgarh and the pickup van, which was coming from the Sakoli side, was packed with passengers. It was being driven by Jaggu alias Jagdev Verma of Nagpur, said police. Both drivers are being charged for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other sections of the Motor Vehicles Act.“Both the vehicles were bound for Nagpur. The left side of the pickup van rammed the right side of the truck,” said an official.Eight of the passengers in the pickup van died on the spot or soon after, while one was declared dead in hospital. The injured, including several children, were rushed to hospitals in Sakoli and Bhandara. Many of the injured persons are women and children.The deceased have been identified as Jambai Ramavatar Verma, 50, resident of Bhandewadi in Nagpur, Meenakshi Rajkumar Verma, 26, and her two-year-old daughter Grisha Verma, Gayatri Rupesh Uike, 30, and her children Sweety, 6, and Dhairya, 4, Sarita Vijay Verma, 30, and Rajkumari Pralhad Patel, 35. Ganeshiya Patel, 35, was brought to GMCH-Nagpur, where she was declared dead.SP Bhandara Noorul Hassan said police reached the spot within 15 minutes. “The villagers joined the rescue and helped pull out the dead and injured out of the wrecked vehicle,” he said.“The accident happened probably due to negligence on the part of both the truck driver and the pickup van driver,” the SP said. He added the pump owner had not installed a barricade and didn’t ensure safe entry and exit even though the pump is on a national highway.The truck driver, pickup van driver and director of Dwarka petrol pump have been arrested. Highway Safety Patrol officer Lohit Matani said the petrol pump owner should have provided a proper ramp to prevent vehicles leaving the pump from suddenly coming onto the highway. Hasan visited the accident site and the hospital, where the injured were being treated.Traffic on the highway was restored after the wrecked vehicles were moved with the help of a crane.
