Three Delhi residents died and four others were seriously injured after their car crashed into a parked warehouse on the side of the road in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur district as they were heading to Corbett National Park early on Saturday, police said.
A group of 12 people, all residents of Delhi and employees of a private company, were rewarded with a trip to Corbett National Park after achieving the set target, a police officer familiar with the project said, adding that the employees left Delhi for Ramnagar in two cars, with seven people traveling in one car and five in the other.
The police identified the deceased as Abhishek Agnihotri (28), Kartik (32) and Neeraj (31), while Kamal, Shamsuddin, Vishal and Jatin were seriously injured. “The injured were initially taken to a community health center and later referred to the district hospital in Rampur for further treatment,” a police officer said.
Akhilesh, one of their colleagues, said that the car involved in the accident suffered a puncture in its tire one kilometer before the accident site. The passengers got off, changed the tire and resumed their journey. During the stop, Akhilesh moved from the ill-fated car to the other car.
After the two cars resumed their journey, the car carrying Akhilesh went ahead while the other car lagged behind. When the second car failed to catch up for some time, Akhilesh and his colleagues tried to contact its occupants over phone, only to discover that the car had crashed into a warehouse parked on the side of the road on the main road near Kotwali.
The police said that the force of the collision resulted in the car being severely crushed. Local residents helped extract the trapped passengers from under the rubble. They were immediately rushed to the community health centre, where doctors declared Abhishek Agnihotri, Kartik and Neeraj dead on arrival, an officer said.
After being informed of the accident, police forces moved to the scene and removed the damaged car to restore traffic on the road.
