18 killed, 19 injured as bus rams into milk tanker on Agra-Lucknow Expressway

Kanpur: At least 18 people were killed and 19 were injured, with some critical, after a sleeper bus carrying migrant workers from Bihar to Delhi collided with a milk tanker in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao, police said. 

The tragic incident took place on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, near Bangarmau in Unnao, when the bus attempted to overtake the tanker and rammed it from behind, said police. 

Along with the police, other emergency services were pressed into action following the incident, said officials aware of the matter, adding that the injured were admitted to district hospitals while those critical were shifted to Lucknow for treatment. The identities of the deceased are yet to be confirmed.

The Unnao administration has also issued helpline numbers – (0515-2970767, 9651432703, 9454417447, 8887713617, 8081211289).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the loss of lives in the incident and announced an ex-gratia of Rs.2 lakh for the next of kin of each deceased and Rs.50,000 to the injured.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath also expressed grief over the incident. The loss of life in a road accident in Unnao district is extremely sad and heart-wrenching, he said in a social media post on X. “My condolences are with the bereaved family. District administration officials have been instructed to reach the spot and speed up the relief work. I pray to Lord Shri Ram to give a place to the departed souls in his feet and provide speedy recovery to the injured,” his post in Hindi read.

Union defence minister Rajnath Singh also took to X to condole the incident. “The road accident in Unnao, UP is extremely sad and heart-wrenching. The local administration is busy treating the injured. I express my condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in this accident on their irreparable loss. May God give strength to their families to bear this sorrow,” he said. 

Meanwhile, former chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying that the reason for the death of 18 people in the accident on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway was the negligence of the BJP government. “...It is a matter of investigation that despite there being a dedicated parking zone on the expressway, why was a vehicle parked in the middle of the road?” he wrote on X. 

Yadav raised further questions and demanded answers from the Adityanath-led UP government. “...How did the monitoring of the parked vehicle go wrong despite the presence of CCTV cameras? Were CCTV cameras not working? ⁠Where was the highway police, was regular patrolling not being done? How long did the Highway Ambulance Service take to arrive after the accident and what was its role in relation to the casualties? If the vehicle was parked due to a breakdown, why towing assistance was not provided? Crores of rupees were spent every day on the expressway. Instead of being spent on the management and administration of the expressway, is that money going somewhere else? The BJP government should answer these questions systematically,” his post read.