Sixteen farm laborers died on a highway in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday night when the pickup van carrying them flipped and ploughed into an oncoming Scorpio. Police said 30 others were hurt, some critically.
The crash happened around 8:30 PM near Chikhaliya Phata on the Indore-Ahmedabad National Highway, in Dhar district, roughly 265 km west of the state capital Bhopal. DNA India reported that the van held about 30 to 35 workers who were heading home from onion fields. Xinhua, citing police, put the toll at at least 16 dead.
The mechanics of the crash, as DNA reconstructed them, are simple and brutal. A tire burst at speed. The driver lost control, the van rolled over several times, cleared the highway divider and hit the SUV coming the other way. Many of the dead were pinned under the van and did not survive the scene. Ambulances took the injured to the nearest hospitals.
Police preliminary findings, quoted by Xinhua, were that “the driver of the pickup van lost control, which resulted in the overturning of the vehicle.” A case has been registered and an investigation ordered.
Compensation announced
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the next of kin of each person killed would get Rs. 2 lakh from the PM’s National Relief Fund, and the injured Rs. 50,000. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav added state payments: Rs. 4 lakhs for the families of the dead, Rs. 1 lakh for the critically injured and Rs. 50,000 for those with minor injuries.
Both leaders offered condolences and prayers for the recovery of the injured.
