Overview
- A Bolero MUV crashed into an Eicher truck on National Highway 53 in Bhandara early Friday, killing nine people — six women and three children from Chhattisgarh — and injuring 14, and the Chhattisgarh government announced Rs 5 lakh for next of kin and Rs 50,000 for the injured.
- A Tata Magic passenger van collided head‑on with a truck on the Nanded–Bhokar road on Thursday evening, with police reporting six dead and eight critically injured while some outlets cited seven fatalities as authorities reconcile numbers.
- In Sonitpur district, a Maruti Suzuki Eeco hit a truck on NH‑15 late Friday night, killing five occupants; police say the truck driver fled and investigators are probing whether loss of control or excessive speed were factors.
- Local residents and emergency teams reached each scene to extricate trapped passengers and rush the injured to nearby hospitals, and police have seized the vehicles and opened formal investigations at all three sites.
- The cluster of night‑time head‑on crashes between light passenger vans and heavy trucks underlines persistent highway safety gaps on national routes and could prompt tighter enforcement of speed and vehicle‑operation rules and targeted road‑safety interventions.