IN Aheart-wrenching road accident in the rural Berasia pocket
of the State capital, five members of a single family were killed
and 12 others sustained serious
injuries during the intervening
night of Wednesday and
Thursday.
The victims, residents of Sironj
in Vidisha district, were travelling to Narmadapuram
(Hoshangabad) for the auspicious Makar Sankranti holy dip
when their speeding loading
vehicle collided head-on with a
tractor-trolley.
According to Berasia Police
Station In-charge Virendra Sen,
the Ahirwar family was travelling
in a pickup vehicle.
At approximately 2 am, near the Thakur Lal
Singh School, the vehicle crashed
into a tractor-trolley arriving
from the opposite direction.
The impact was so severe that
the front portion of the pickup
was completely mangled, trapping the occupants inside the
wreckage.
Local residents and police officials had to employ heavy
machinery to cut through the
twisted metal to extricate the
bodies and rescue the survivors.
Following the alert, Berasia
SDM Ashutosh Sharma, MLA
Vishnu Khatri and Additional SP
Neeraj Chaurasia reached the
Government hospital late at night
to oversee the emergency
response.
High-level instructions
have been issued to ensure the
best possible medical treatment
for the 12 injured survivors,
which include several children.
Preliminary investigations
suggest that excessive speed of
the loading vehicle was a primary factor leading to the fatal
collision.
The police administration has
identified the deceased as
Laxmibai Ahirwar, Babli Bai, Hari
Bai, Deepak, and Mukesh
Ahirwar.
The list of those undergoing
treatment at the Berasia Civil
Hospital includes Suraj, Vinita,
Punit, Monika, Mahak, Nuri Bai,
Lallu, Pradeep, and Jyoti. Two
individuals travelling in the tractor-trolley were also caught in the
impact and are currently under
medical supervision.