Seven students, SUV driver hurt in pile-up on highway

Mahesh Sharma

Mandi Ahmedgarh, February 5

Seven children of different families of the town, who were going to their respective schools in Ludhiana early morning, had a miraculous escape after the Innova (SUV) they were travelling in was crushed between a bus going ahead and a truck trailing behind near Kaind bridge on the Ludhiana-Malerkotla highway near here today.

However, driver of the SUV and one of the students was injured seriously. The injured were identified as Fariad, driver of the SUV, and Anshuman Sharma, a student.

Though the police have yet to ascertain exact sequence of events that lead to the pileup of four vehicles, poor visibility due to dense fog could not be ruled out as major reason behind the mishap.

Investigation revealed that an Innova carrying seven students of various schools in Ludhiana was completely damaged after a speeding truck collided with it from the rear side and the front side of the SUV rammed into a slow moving bus going ahead near Kaind bridge under the Dehlon police station area early morning on Wednesday. Students travelling in the SUV were in a state of shock the accident. Rakesh Jain, a social activist and father of one of the students, said there was a pile of four vehicles, including Innova, truck-trailer, bus and truck.

“Though we have yet to know exact cause behind the pile up, eyewitnesses says the vehicle carrying our children was going at slow speed as the truck-trailer going ahead was taking a U turn. The children got panicked when a speeding truck coming from behind hit the SUV,” said Jain while maintaining that the collision was so powerful that the SUV rammed into the bus going ahead, which further collided with the truck-trailer in front.

Innova Arhan Jain, a Class IX student, who was travelling in Innova, rescued other children by pushing open the rear windowpane of the damaged SUV. All the victims except Fariad and Anshuman were discharged after medical aid at different hospitals.

The Dehlon SHO, Sukhdev Singh Brar, who supervised the rescue operation along with cops led by Ranjit Singh, said necessary action would be taken after receiving formal complaints from the accident victims.