Twenty-three people were killed and several others injured in multiple road accidents across Uttar Pradesh on Friday, according to police reports. In Pilibhit, six people lost their lives when a car carrying a wedding party crashed into a tree and then plunged into a ditch around midnight. Meanwhile, in Chitrakoot, another six people were killed in a head-on collision between a sports utility vehicle (SUV) and a truck.
In Kannauj, eight passengers lost their lives when a private bus hit a water tanker on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway. In Lucknow, three men were killed when their motorcycle was struck by an unidentified vehicle in the Mall police station area. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences over the loss of lives in the Kannauj incident and announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 2 lakh each from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for the families of the deceased, as well as Rs 50,000 each for those injured.
In the Pilibhit incident, a car carrying 11 people crashed into a tree before plunging into a ditch on the Pilibhit-Tanakpur road in the Neora police station area. The driver reportedly lost control while attempting to overtake another vehicle. Superintendent of Police (SP) Avinash Kumar Pandey told PTI that the rescue operation lasted over an hour and a half, with a bulldozer being used to clear a fallen tree that had trapped the vehicle.