Three Gujarat women killed in US as car goes airborne, hits trees

Anand/New York, April 27

Three women, originally hailing from Gujarat’s Anand district and settled in the United States, were killed in a deadly car crash in the US state of South Carolina, their relatives said on Saturday.

The accident occurred on Friday on the Staunton Bridge Road along Interstate 85 near Lakeside Road, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol troopers, said a media report. The overspeeding car jumped at least 20 feet in the air before crashing into trees, it said. The accident victims were travelling in an SUV, according to Chief Deputy Coroner Mike Ellis from the Greenville County Coroner’s Office, a TV channel reported.

He said the vehicle left the roadway on the right-hand shoulder, ran up the embankment, went through the cement bridge embankment, and jumped completely over all four lanes of traffic. It then went through some trees on the other side and down an embankment, he added.

Their relatives in Gujarat have identified the three as Rekha Dilip Patel, Sangita Bhavnesh Patel and Manisha Rajendra Patel. They belonged to Vasna (Borsad) and Kavitha villages in Borsad taluka of the state’s Anand district.

The women were also related, they said. The husbands of Rekha and Sangita — Dilip Patel and Bhavnesh Patel, respectively — are brothers, while Manisha’s husband Rajendra is a cousin of the two men. Except for Sangita’s father Vitthalbhai, who lives near Kavitha village, all other family members of the three women and their husbands had shifted to the US long back.