7 killed in Maharashtra as driver falls asleep; car crashes into divider

Victims killed were fast asleep in the vehicle, the driver of truck fled the scene of accident

Seven persons were killed when a speeding Bolero crashed into a divider and rammed into an oncoming truck near Dhangarwadi here early on Wednesday morning, police said.

Around 4 a.m., the vehicle, headed towards Aurangabad, lost control and hit the truck bound towards Ahmednagar after crashing through the divider, Vilas Kanawade of the MIDC Police Station here said.

All the victims killed were fast asleep in the vehicle, while the driver of the truck fled the scene of the accident, which took place on the busy Ahmednagar-Aurangabad highway.

As per preliminary investigations, Kanawade said the jeep driver had apparently dozed off at the wheel as the speeding vehicle climbed onto the road divider. It then collided head-on with the truck coming in from the opposite direction.

"The accident is so gruesome with the mangled remains of the jeep and the bodies that we have not been able to identify any of the victims so far, where they came from or where they were headed," Kanawade added.

The police have started searching for the absconding truck driver, he said.