Mangled remains of the pickup truck.
Agra: Five members of a family from Rajasthan were killed and at least 20 of their relatives and friends injured after their pick-up truck collided with a lorry in UP’s Kasganj district early Monday. The small pickup — which was headed towards Kasganj’s Soron for the last rites — was carrying around 26 people, mostly relatives and friends, according to police.
SP (Kasganj) OP Singh said, “This is a tragic accident where the relatives were about to perform their kin’s last rites. The victims were on their way to immerse the ashes of a relative in the Ganga when they met with the accident around 4am in front of an inter-college near Kantaur village under Sadar Kotwali police limits. Remarkably, a two-year-old travelling in the same vehicle escaped unhurt. Preliminary investigation indicates the driver may have dozed off while driving. With the help of local residents, police and ambulance teams managed to take the injured to the district hospital in Kasganj. Legal procedures along with the postmortem are being carried out. The lorry driver is yet to be traced, police added.
Preetam Singh, one of the relatives, told TOI : “The victims were all part of an extended family. Most of them were from daily-wage backgrounds. News of the road crash has shocked their villages in Rajasthan.”