Ex-BSP Councillor, 5 Others Killed After His SUV Crashes Into Roadways Bus On Agra-Lucknow Expressway

A former BSP councillor and five others were killed after his SUV crashed with the stat-run bus on Agra-Lucknow Expressway in early morning hours on Tuesday. News Nation has learnt that the BSP leader identified as Surjeet Singh was a resident of Mayur Vihar in east Delhi. He was traveling in his white Fortuner along with four others when the accident took place. Singh and all other passengers in the car died in the crash. Singh had contested against Manish Sisodia as an Independent candidate from Patparganj constituency. Initial reports suggest that the accident occurred when the driver of the bus, which was on its way to Muzaffarpur in Bihar, lost control over the vehicle and rammed into a car after hitting the road divider.

This is the second accident that took place on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway. Fourteen people were killed and 25 injured when a bus rammed into a stationary truck on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway. SP (Rural) Rajesh Kumar had said the accident took place around 10 pm on Wednesday in the Nagla Khanagar police station area when the double-decker bus carrying passengers from Delhi to Motihari, in north Bihar, crashed into the stationary truck. There were around 50 people on the bus at the time of the accident, Kumar had added. A recent Road Accident Report said that the number of persons killed in road crashes in India touched all time high last year registering over 1.51 lakh deaths, an increase of nearly 3,500 more people losing their lives compared to 2017, with Uttar Pradesh recording maximum road deaths.

Over-speeding has been a cause of concern for the authorities. Last year, in a unique initiative to abet the trend of accidents on Lucknow-Agra Expressway, the Uttar Pradesh government had reportedly started to impose heavy fine on all the speeding drivers. A July, 2019 report said that the new mechanism had already been put in action and around 25 challans have been issued. The report said that two toll plazas –at Agra (21 km) and Lucknow (290 km) – will help the authorities to keep a tab on the erring drivers. The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority said that those covering the 300 km distance between these two toll plazas within three hours will be fined.

Since the 2017 launch, the Expressway has witnessed over 1,900 deaths. Earlier in April, an RTI reply had revealed that in just 90 days, 36 people lost their lives, 222 others were injured in over 400 accidents on the Expressway.  Advocate KC Jain had filed a Right to Information plea seeking details of accidents on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.