Family of eight, on way to see Taj Mahal, killed in road accident

PTI, Jun 17, 2019, 11:00 AM IST

Mathura (UP): Eight members of a Greater Noida family on their way to the Taj Mahal were killed when their car rammed into a truck on the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura district on Sunday, police said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath condoled the deaths and extended his sympathies to the kin of the victims, an official statement from his office said in Lucknow. Five members of the family from Jewar in Gautam Buddh Nagar district died on the spot when their car rammed into the truck moving ahead of it around 8.30 am in the Baldeo police station area, about 30 km from Mathura city.

Three others succumbed to injuries at a hospital, Superintendent of Police (Rural) Aditya Kumar Shukla said. According to a police statement, the family was going to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. The police said the car was completely mangled and they had to use gas cutters to bring out the bodies.

The deceased have been identified as Neeraj (30), Anita (30), Vishnu (23), Taruna (21), Santoshi (19), Shalu (20), Anjali (11) and Gabbar (24), the police officer said. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem. The truck driver fled with his vehicle from the spot after the accident, the officer said.

The 165-km-long Yamuna Expressway, connecting Greater Noida with Agra, has witnessed hundreds of deaths in road accidents over the years, with officials saying that many of them occurred due to overspeeding.

Last Tuesday, three men returning from a wedding function in Aligarh to their homes in Ghaziabad died on the expressway in Greater Noida after their speeding car crashed into a truck, the police had said.

On May 16, 10 college students were hospitalised after the van carrying them to their campus for examination crashed on the expressway in Greater Noida. Two of them had died later, the police had said.

Udayavani is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with the latest news.