UP: Car catches fire after collision, 5 of family charred to death

AGRA: Five members of a family were charred to death in their hatchback while one was critically injured, after the car they were travelling in rammed into the rear of a cement laden truck in UP's Etah district.
The accident occurred at 4.50am at Etah-Farrukhabad state highway 7km away from Bagwala police jurisdiction near Himmatpur village. The victims were returning to their native village from Noida.
According to an eyewitness, the speeding car rammed into the standstill truck which was parked on the extreme left of the main road, suggesting the victim on steering wheel of hatchback probably fell asleep during the journey.
After the accident, the labors working in nearby bricklin ran towards the burning car to rescue the victims, but they could retrieve only a 18-year-old girl, who suffered burn and fracture injuries. Rest all the five victims in car were charred to death, later local police along with fire tender arrived to douse the fire.
The deceased were identified as Sunil Katheria, the victim driving the hatchback, his wife Vimla Devi, son Babloo Katheria, brother-in-law Chandra Shekhar Katheria and a septuagenarian head of the family, whose name was yet to be ascertained by the police.
The injured girl was identified as Varsha Katheria. “The girl was first taken to local community health center from where she was referred to Agra based hospital. The girl in her brief interaction with police claimed, that her family had left Noida at around 11pm to visit native village. Her father is driver of app based taxi service in Noida,” said station house officer of Bagawal, Dharmender Singh.
Victim’s bodies have been sent for autopsy and their relatives were informed about the accident. According to police, the driver of the truck is absconding after the accident.
Notably, an average of two persons died per hour in road accidents in Uttar Pradesh in 2018. A total of 22,256 people have lost lives in 42,568 road accidents in the state. This was revealed in the 2018 report titled ‘Road Accidents in India’ released recently by the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH).
The report further stated, that rural areas of UP reported 15.77% more number of road accidents, 26.57% more casualties and 15.08% more injured as well. A total of 22,840 road accidents occurred in rural belt as compare to 19,728 in urban areas of UP 2018. Similarly, 12,433 were killed on stretches passing via rural areas in compare to 9,823 in urban. A total of 15,872 were injured in rural and 13,792 in urban areas.
The data also revealed, that in UP 1,299 people were killed in 2,515 road accidents and injuring 1,769, when a speeding vehicle hit parked vehicle. While in the case of vehicle been rammed from behind, 2,437 were killed in 4,942 accidents, injuring 3,357.