Several vehicles piled up due to low visibility conditions at Firozabad near Agra
New Delhi:
Two bikers died and nearly three dozen people were injured in separate accidents due to smog conditions in Noida and other parts of western Uttar Pradesh in the early hours today.
A truck rammed into another on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway due to low visibility. A bus that was travelling from Panipat to Mathura could not spot the trucks and hit them from behind. About a dozen passengers in the bus were injured and rushed to hospital. Police reached the pile-up spot and started clearing the way.
At Firozabad near Agra, six vehicles piled up after a pick-up truck broke down and the cars behind it could not spot the stalled vehicle due to low visibility. Several people injured in the pile-up have been rushed to Saifai Medical College. The incident took place near Nasirpur on the Agra-Lucknow expressway. Several SUVs crashed one after the other after they failed to see the stalled pick-up truck.
One of those caught in the pile-up said, “We couldn’t see anything and our car hit a car that had rammed the truck. Then three-four more cars crashed into ours.”
At Bulandshahr, a speeding truck hit a bike from behind, leading to the biker’s death. Mainpuri resident Mansharam died after the truck rammed his bike due to low visibility on National Highway-34. Police have taken the truck driver into custody.
Another road tragedy occurred near Badaun when an unidentified vehicle hit the bike of Santosh Singh, a teacher who was on his way to the school in Mau. Ten other people have been injured in similar crashes in the area.
Several parts of North India, including national capital Delhi, are in the middle of a health emergency due to toxic air quality. Alarmingly high levels of pollution, which are currently in the ‘severe+’ category, have led to dense smog and hit visibility in Delhi and other cities in the National Capital Region. With residents complaining of sore throat, headaches and breathing difficulties, local administrations have advised people to stay indoors as much as possible.
