Overview
- A truck hit a Bolero pickup carrying devotees on the Samruddhi Expressway near Dhamangaon, leaving police reports that range from five to seven dead and about 20 injured as hospitals treated several people in critical condition.
- In Gurugram two men died after they were run over on a busy Sector 18 road and police have registered an FIR after seizing an abandoned tractor‑tanker while an e‑rickshaw collision has been cited in an alternative account of how the riders fell.
- Separate collisions in Ranchi, Muzaffarnagar and Ambedkar Nagar killed multiple people, with reports that a motorcycle struck heavy vehicles in Ranchi, a tractor‑trolley fled the scene in Muzaffarnagar, and a bus reportedly collided head‑on with a trailer in Ambedkar Nagar where police suspect the driver may have dozed off.
- Authorities have opened inquiries at each scene, impounded vehicles, examined CCTV and moved injured people to higher‑care centres while attempting to trace and arrest drivers who fled, leaving casualty totals still under review.
- Police and local officials point to recurring risk factors such as heavy vehicles on single‑lane or high‑speed roads, speeding, driver fatigue and dangerous secondary collisions, which experts say could prompt stricter enforcement and targeted safety checks during festival travel.