Dense fog leads to car pile-ups on Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida

www.mangaloretoday.com

Greater Noida, Nov 8, 2017 (HT): Six people were injured when 13 vehicles were caught in a pile-up on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida’s Dankaur area due to low visibility on Wednesday morning, police said, as commuters in several parts of the national capital region were affected by this year’s worst spell of air pollution.

Dankaur’s station house officer Farmood Ali Pundir said collisions took place on both sides of the expressway near the under construction eastern peripheral flyway where lanes have been closed and barricades have been laid.

Five vehicles on their way to Agra and eight were going to Delhi collided on the expressway, said police.

“There are reflectors near the eastern peripheral flyway, which is under construction. People could not see the barricades due to low visibility and ran over it. All the vehicles hit bumper to bumper,” he added.

Pundir said six people received minor injuries and were shifted to Kailash Hospital where they were discharged after first aid. None of the persons received any critical injury.

The vehicles involved in the collisions included a Toyota Innova, Mahindra Scorpio, Hyundai Xcent, Maruti Ertiga and others.

“Seven cars are still on the spot due to severe dents, while six immediately moved from the spot. Men and machinery have been pressed to move them away,” Pundir said.

Gautam Budh Nagar superintendent of police (rural) Suniti said they have taken cognizance of the matter.

“We will ensure deployment of police personnel at the spot, besides more reflectors, will be installed to avoid such accidents in future,” the officer said.

Nine people were killed when a truck ploughed through a crowd that had gathered around an accident site at a bridge on the Bathinda-Rampura Phul road in Punjab early on Wednesday. And seven people were injured on the NH-9 near Odhan village of Haryana’s Sirsa district in a pile-up involving six vehicles.

Several parts of north India, and in particular New Delhi, suffer from a dip in temperature during this time of the year that traps air pollution causing a number of medical emergencies due to breathing difficulty. The fog that hits the region also hits the road, rail and air travel as flights are diverted or cancelled and train schedules disrupted.

Dense smog on the National Highway-9, which connects Haryana and its neighbouring Punjab with the national capital, affected the schedule of long-distance trains and state roadways buses on Wednesday.

Trains from Punjab’s Bathinda to Delhi via Sirsa and Hisar ran late by an hour and the Haryana Roadways cancelled early morning long-route buses to avoid accidents amid the smog. A senior railway official said the schedule of nearly 120 trains has been affected.