Truck and Pickup Collide on Samruddhi Highway

A truck collided with a Bolero pickup carrying devotees on the Samruddhi Highway in Amravati district early Friday, killing and injuring passengers, police said. Reports differed on the toll: one account said seven people died and 19 were injured, while another reported five killed and 21 injured before two people later died in hospital. The confirmed final number of casualties was not clear in the available accounts. Police said the collision occurred around 12:45 a.m. near Dhamangaon Railway Station, at Channel 97 of the highway. The pickup was travelling from Shegaon to Wardha with devotees and a Durga idol, according to accounts of the journey. A senior police official said five people died at the scene and 21 were injured. An official at a hospital in Wardha later said two of the injured were declared dead. That account would bring the reported death toll to seven, but the reports did not reconcile the injury totals. Other accounts gave a toll of seven dead and 19 injured without explaining how those figures were reached. The injured were taken first to Dhamangaon Rural Hospital and then referred to medical facilities in Wardha for further treatment, reports said.