Nine labourers from Chhattisgarh killed in pre-dawn Bhandara highway crash

Nine migrant labourers were killed on the spot and a tenth died later while undergoing treatment after a vehicle carrying them rammed into a truck on the Nagpur-Raipur highway (NH-53) in Lakhani tehsil of Bhandara district. The crash happened around 4 am on Friday near Pimpalgaon village, close to a roadside eatery called Bhau Dhaba, even as the Pola festival was being observed in the surrounding villages.

Police said a truck had just filled fuel at a nearby petrol pump and was easing onto the highway towards Nagpur when a pickup vehicle carrying labourers came up from behind at high speed. The driver lost control and the pickup slammed into the rear of the truck with such force that the smaller vehicle was crushed, trapping many of its occupants in the wreckage. Rescuers needed considerable effort to free the injured from the mangled frame.

Fourteen labourers in all were travelling in the pickup. Nine of them died at the scene, and one more succumbed during treatment, taking the toll to ten. Five others were seriously hurt. Those killed included women, children and men. All the victims and the injured were residents of Chhattisgarh who were on their way to Nagpur in search of work.

National Highway police, local administration staff and villagers reached the spot soon after the crash and carried out relief and rescue work. The injured were rushed to the Government Medical College and Hospital in Bhandara, where their condition was described as critical. The collision briefly snarled traffic on the highway before police moved the wrecked vehicles to the side and restored the flow.

Police have seized both vehicles and opened a preliminary inquiry, with a case registered and further investigation continuing. The accident has also renewed questions about safety on this stretch of highway, with residents pointing out that there is no speed radar to check vehicles moving at night, and no enforced warning signage for heavy vehicles near petrol pumps and roadside eateries. News of the deaths, arriving on the morning of the Pola festival, brought grief to the families of the labourers back home.