Nine people, mostly from the same family, were killed when the car they were travelling in caught fire after colliding with a truck near Morbi town in Gujarat’s Saurashtra region on Tuesday night, police said on Wednesday, adding to the growing number of fatalities in the country that has the world’s deadliest roads.
“The car they were travelling in ran on gas. It caught fire soon after the collision with the truck coming from the opposite direction,’’ a police officer said.
Police said they were travelling in a Maruti Eco car from Kutch and were on their way back to Rajkot.
“Seven people had died on the spot and two breathed their last in the hospital. By Wednesday morning all the nine who were travelling together died,’’a Rajkot district official said.
The dead have been identified as Balwant Kaladiya (64), Ramesh Kaladiya (57), Meena Kaladiya (52), Saagar Kaladiya (24), Mahesh Kaladiya (47), Sangita Kaladiya (45), Rajesh Kaladiya (45), Bhavna Kaladiya (42) and their driver Jayanti Adsesara (40).
The police said Rajesh and Bhavna lived in Gwalior and went for a pilgrimage in Kutch with the Kaladiyas settled in Rajkot.
The police said the truck driver fled from the spot soon after the accident and the truck’s number plate was missing.
A case against the unidentified truck driver has been registered, they added.
India witnessed 17 deaths and 55 road accidents every hour in 2016, one of the highest in the world, according to the report released by the Union road transport and highways ministry.
The report compiled by the ministry’s Transport Research Wing said road accidents killed 150,785 people across India in 2016 — a 3.3% jump from 2015 when 146,000 lakh road fatalities were reported.
