Four members of a family, including a couple and their son, were killed and five others were critically injured in a collision between a Maruti Baleno and a Hyundai Creta on the Jammu national highway on Monday morning.
The accident took place at 5.41am near the Johal Dhaba area in Kishangarh, Jalandhar, triggering a traffic disruption on the busy route.
According to police, the victims in the Baleno (PB 07 CA 1510) were residents of Himmatpur in Hoshiarpur district and were headed to the Sri Hazur Sahib pilgrimage in Nanded, Maharashtra.
Preliminary investigations suggest that the Baleno, which was travelling from Bhogpur toward Jalandhar, was speeding. The driver lost control of the vehicle while attempting to cross the divider, causing it to hurtle into the opposite lane and crash into the oncoming Creta (UP 21 C 9595), which was headed toward Pathankot.
The impact of the collision was such that both vehicles were completely mangled, leaving debris scattered across the highway.
A passerby alerted the State Special Force (SSF), and local residents rushed to help. The five occupants of the Creta, all residents of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, sustained severe injuries and were rushed to Fortis Hospital in Jalandhar before the authorities arrived.
The deceased have been identified as Rupinder Singh, his wife Harpreet Kaur, their son Arshdeep Singh, and another relative, Santosh Kaur.
The injured victims from Uttar Pradesh have been identified as Abdul Saeed Khan, his daughter Alina, Parveen Khan, Abdul Faizal Khan, and Maynal Khan.
An Alawalpur police team, led by sub-inspector Ravinder Singh and DSP Rajeev Kumar, reached the spot shortly after the incident. Police took custody of the bodies for post-mortem examinations and deployed cranes to clear the wreckage from the highway to restore the flow of traffic. Further investigation into the crash is underway.
