17 killed, over 80 injured as fog triggers pile-up on Yamuna Expressway

The victims identified so far are Akhilendra Pratap Yadav (44); a resident of Prayagraj; Rampal (75), a resident of Maharajganj; Sultan Ahmad (62) a resident of Gonda district.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Droupadi Murmu, Vice-President C P Radhakrishnan and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief at the loss of lives.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Superintendent of Police, Mathura (Rural), Suresh Chandra Rawat said the accident took place because of poor visibility due to fog. “… Several bodies have been charred and we are trying to identify them…,” he added.

SHO Sachan told The Indian Express that the incident occurred between 3.30 am and 4 am at Milestone 127 on the Expressway near Baldev Police station area in Mathura.

The SHO said there were no CCTV cameras in the area but, prima facie, it appears that an Ertiga car collided with a Brezza car, which were petrol and diesel vehicles respectively, and caught fire. Following this, other vehicles, including eight buses — a government vehicle and seven private ones — heading to Noida collided with the cars and caught fire.

According to officials, 11 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the blaze and conduct a rescue operation that lasted nearly six hours. Visuals from the spot showed charred buses and cars, reduced to mangled shells. Cranes were called in to remove them from the road.

SSP Mathura, Shlok Kumar, said, “The accident took place at the Yamuna Expressway Milestone 127. The reason was low visibility…”

District Magistrate Chandra Prakash Singh ordered a four-member team to investigate the road tragedy and submit a report in two days. Singh has also written to the Yamuna Authority to explain why the accident took place.

PM Modi, in a post shared by the PMO India X handle, said: “The loss of lives due to a mishap on the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, is extremely painful. My thoughts are with those who have lost their loved ones. I pray for the speedy recovery of those injured.”

The PMO, in the post, said an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund will be given to the next of kin of each deceased and Rs 50,000 would be given to each injured.

In a social media post, President Murmu extended her condolences to all the bereaved families and prayed for the swift recovery of those injured.

CM Adityanath, in a post on X in Hindi, expressed his condolences to the kin of the deceased. “The loss of life in the road accident on the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura district is extremely tragic and heartbreaking. My deepest condolences are with the bereaved families… I have instructed the district administration officials to ensure proper treatment for the injured.”

He directing that the families of those who lost their lives in the accident be provided immediate financial aid of Rs 2 lakh each, while the injured be given assistance of Rs 50,000 each.

Passersby, meanwhile, said they saw people trying to escape from the burning buses.

Bhagwan Das, a passerby, said it felt like a bomb blast. “We thought a bomb had exploded. I saw people breaking windows of buses to get out,” he said.

Guljari Lal, a resident of Hamirpur, was making rounds of hospitals looking for his sister-in-law, Parvati, 45. “She was travelling to Delhi with her children. They boarded the bus around 6 pm on Monday. When the accident happened, [the children told me] she broke the window pane of the bus and pushed the children outside but got stuck inside. I have been looking around for her.”

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