12 killed, 22 injured as truck runs into marriage procession in Rajasthan

Yash Goyal
Our Correspondent
Jaipur, February 18 

A speeding truck ran into a marriage procession in Rajasthan's Pratapgarh district on National Highway 113, killing 12 people while leaving 22 others injured on Tuesday.

The accident happened near Ramdev temple at Bandoli on Monday night, when the truck going from Nimbahera to Banswara, rammed into the marriage party moving on the roadside, Choti Sadri DSP Vijaypal Singh Sandhu said.

District Collector SS Rajpurohit told The Tribune that 19 people were critically injured and rushed to a government hospital in Udaipur, and three were admitted to the local hospital.

People of Gadariya-Lohar community, living on the roadside at Ramdeora village, said the truck was passing on the highway when it hit them from the back around 9.30 pm, he said. 

"The bride and groom were among the seriously injured,” he said. 

SP Anil K Beniwal and civil administration officials are holding the rescue operation. 

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said he was deeply saddened to hear about the accident. "My heartfelt condolences to the grieved families. I pray for speedy recovery of injured people (sic)," he tweeted.

Deeply saddened to hear about the tragic accident on NH-113 in Chhoti Sadri, #Pratapgarh in which many people have lost their lives and several have been injured. My heartfelt condolences to the grieved families. I pray for speedy recovery of injured people.#Rajasthan

— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) 18 February 2019

Nine of the deceased have been identified as Daulatram (60), Bharat (30), Shubham (5), Chhotu (5), Dilip (11), Arjun (15), Ishu (19), Ramesh (30) and Karan (28), the police said. 

The DSP said the truck driver apparently could not see the procession.

He said the bodies had been kept in a mortuary for postmortem and an investigation is under way.

The truck was impounded and the driver who was trying to flee was nabbed. — With PTI