In a tragic accident, six Indians including four of a family were killed in the US state of Oklahoma when their speeding minivan collided head-on with a tractor-trailer on a highway under wet road conditions, police said.
The accident that occurred on Highway 69 in Mayes County near Chouteau in rural Oklahoma last week killed 32-year-old Bhaskar Jha, his wife Annu Jha, 31, and their two children aged 1 and 3.
Bhaskar, who hails from Madhubani district in Bihar, was driving the ill-fated vehicle on January 8 and apparently lost control because he was travelling too fast for the wet road conditions, The Kansas City Star reported.
The report also identified the fifth deceased as Agni Pal Singh, 34. The sixth was a woman, who was not identified by police.
Investigators said it was raining at the time of the crash and the minivan was driving too fast for those conditions.
They added that the area of the highway between the towns of Mazie and Chouteau is especially dangerous during bad weather.
Bhaskar's relatives told PTI in New Delhi that he was working as a senior associate with Cognizant Technology Solution for over one year and that the news was broken to them by company officials.
"We are still waiting for the dead bodies and it has already been five days since the accident took place," said Bhaskar's younger brother Prem Shankar Jha.
They said Singh was Bhaskar's colleague and the sixth deceased person was the former's wife. Their eight-month-old child is the lone survivor of the horrific mishap and is undergoing treatment for serious injuries.
Prem said he has approached the Ministry of External Affairs and requested its intervention to speed up the process of repatriation of the dead bodies.
The Ministry has requested the Indian Consulate in New York to provide all possible assistance, he added.
