Six people were burnt alive after a container truck overturned and rammed a car from behind in Maharashtra's Wardha district. The two vehicles caught fire and everyone on board - four members of a family travelling in a car, the truck driver and his helper - were charred to death. The accident took place on the Samruddhi Mahamarg, a six-lane expressway connecting Mumbai to Nagpur, at around 3 am.
According to an investigation, a truck carrying ethanol had met with an accident, resulting in fuel spill. Traffic was subsequently diverted to the other lane.
Amid this, a car travelling from Pune to Wardha was struck from behind by a speeding truck loaded with chilies. The car was crushed under the truck, and the two vehicles were engulfed in flames.
The four occupants of a car were residents of Salod in Wardha, who were returning home after dropping one of their daughters to college in Pune for her MBA course. The victims have been identified as Rajesh Tiple, his wife Sushma Tiple, their daughter Jahnvi and their driver, Ankush Raut. The other two victims are truck driver Sanjay Kumar and the cleaner Samarjit Pal.
Teams from the Highway Safety Patrol, Wardha Police, fire brigade, and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation rushed to the spot for rescue and traffic restoration operations.
The Samruddhi Expressway recorded 185 accidents in 2025, a 35 per cent increase from the 2024 figure of 137, the news agency PTI reported attributing to the highway police data.
