Migrants were sleeping when death struck in Auraiya; Dazed survivors unable to recount events

I was sleeping and don't know what happened, said a dazed Vandana, a survivor of the accident in which 25 migrants workers were killed and 40 other were injured here on Saturday.

Rescue workers and locals were toiling to remove the sacks of lime powder using JCB machines and pull out the people buried underneath after a trailer rammed into a stationary truck near an eatery and both the vehicles overturned at around 3 AM on the Auraiya-Kanpur Dehat stretch of National Highway 19.

Vandana was among the 22 occupants of the truck which had stopped at the eatery as they wanted to have tea.

 

"I got up with a jerk and fell down from the truck," she said before becoming unconscious.

Rucksacks and packets of food lay strewn at the site, telling the grim story of how, like lakhs of other migrant workers across the country, these people had hitched rides on the two vehicles in their desperation to reach home during the coronavirus lockdown.

The trailer was carrying sacks of lime powder on which the around 40 workers were sleeping when it crashed into the stationary truck, officials said.

The truck was carrying around 22 people, including five women and seven children, officials said.

The highway has agriculture fields on both side. Hearing the impact of the collision, villagers rushed to site and helped the police and district administration officials in the rescue work.

Both the vehicles overturned after the crash.

"Five of those brought here are in a very serious condition and one of them has been put on ventilator. Two of them have head injury," Vice-Chancellor of Saifai Medical University Dr Raj Kumar said

Among those admitted are a couple and their three children, he said.

"Since the victims were coming from Delhi, all have been kept in a separate wing of the COVID hospital and the doctors incharge there are monitoring them," he said.

Circle Officer of Auraiya Surendranath Yadav said it was not clear if the drivers had survived.

"We spoke to some of the survivors of the accident. They are unable to recall how the accident took place. At this point of time, it is not clear whether the drivers of both the trucks are among the deceased or not," he told PTI.

While many of the workers were from Jharkhand and West Bengal, some were from Kushinagar in eastern Uttar Pradesh, they said.

The truck was going from Delhi to Madhya Pradesh, while the trailer was coming from Rajasthan.

After the incident, state police said they were taking steps to ensure that such accidents don't recur. But eyewitnesses said many trucks with migrants were still running on the highway.