Delhi–Agra Expressway Pile-Up: 13 Dead and 70 injures in Heavy Fog

Dense fog caused a pile-up on the Delhi-Agra Expressway near Mathura early on Tuesday. At least 13 people died and 70 were hurt.

Eight buses and eight smaller vehicles, including three cars, crashed into each other and caught fire.

Sources said the crash happened when it was hard to see because of the thick fog that covered the area.  The cars crashed into each other one after the other, starting a huge fire that made it hard for people to get away.

The thick fog made it very hard to see, which was the main reason for the huge pile-up.  The crash was so bad that most of the cars caught fire right away, trapping people inside and causing panic at the scene.  A police officer said, "All 13 died from burns."

He said that people who saw it said that things were chaotic as the flames quickly spread from one car to another.  Passengers yelled for help as they tried to get away.  Pictures from the site showed burned-up bus parts.

Akhilendra Pratap Yadav, 44, from Allahabad, and Rampal, 75, from Maharajganj district, were two of the dead.  "The process of identifying the rest of the dead is still going on," the officer said.

Firefighters, police, and ambulances got to the scene quickly after the crash.

Firefighters fought the fire while rescue teams pulled out survivors and took the injured to hospitals in Mathura and nearby districts for treatment.

After the accident, traffic on the affected part of the expressway was stopped for hours.  An investigation has begun to find out what happened before the crash.

Chandra Prakash Singh, the district magistrate of Mathura, said that 13 people died in a "very unfortunate way."

There were eight buses, one tempo traveler, and a few small cars in the accident.  All of the buses, even a state-run one, were destroyed.  Two smaller cars also caught fire.  Six to seven cars were also damaged.  He said, "About 70 people were hurt."

"We've also been told to slow down cars and stop people from driving carelessly.  He went on to say, "Cars should be able to pass in a controlled way until the weather gets better."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, have said they will help the victims financially.

On Monday, four people, including two police officers, died and 20 others were hurt when the season's first thick fog caused a crash involving about 20 cars on the Mumbai-Delhi Express near Nuh in Haryana.

On Tuesday, Modi said, "It hurts a lot that people died in an accident on the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh."  I am thinking of the people who have lost loved ones.  I pray that those who were hurt get better quickly.