Van hits NH-9 divider & flips, 14 of family injured

Ghaziabad: Fourteen members of a family were injured after the van in which they were travelling crashed into a divider and flipped on its side on NH-9 in Indirapuram on Sunday morning.Police suspect the driver might have suffered a heat stroke and lost control of the non-AC vehicle when the accident occurred around 10am. The maximum temperature in the city hovered around the 43-degree mark on Sunday. According to police, Rajkumar Singh, the village head of Bhosari in Gurgaon, had left home with 26 other relatives in the van to fix his son's marriage in Hapur. They had reached Lal Kuan when the van rammed the divider.Quoting the injured passengers, additional DCP (traffic) Veerendra Kumar said, "The driver, Vikas, became unconscious and lost control of the vehicle. He may have suffered a heat stroke because of the high temperature. Passersby informed police and a team reached the accident spot along with an ambulance. The injured passengers were taken to a nearby hospital. Most of the injured passengers were discharged after basic treatment."Rajkumar said they had left home around 7.45am. "We were going to Hapur to fix the marriage of our son. The mood inside the van was jolly. The women were singing wedding songs when we heard a loud crash. The van landed on its side and we were trapped. Some people opened the door of the van and pulled us out one by one," he added.Car goes up in flames Around the same time, a Renault Triber (U FF/7531) went up in flames just 300m from the accident spot. The driver managed to jump out in time and fire tenders doused the flames. Police said the car belonged to Vijay Kumar Mittal."We received information about the van hitting the divider and a car catching fire. Initially, we thought the car would have hit the van and caught fire. So, two fire tenders were sent to the spot from Vaishali and Sector 58 of Noida. Thankfully, the car that was gutted was at some distance from the spot where the van hit the divider and turned turtle," said Rahul Pal, the chief fire officer.