Eight people, including three young children, lost their lives when a heavy goods vehicle collided with a Bolero pickup truck on the Nagpur–Raipur National Highway in Maharashtra's Bhandara district early on Friday morning. The crash occurred around 4 a.m. near Pimplagaon road, when the two vehicles slammed into each other with devastating force.
According to local police, all eight deceased were travelling from Raipur in Chhattisgarh towards Nagpur via National Highway 53. The Bolero pickup was carrying family members, and among the dead are three children, raising grief across the region.
The impact of the collision severely crushed the Bolero, trapping several occupants inside the mangled metal. Rescue personnel and locals rushed to the site, but extracting those pinned inside proved extremely difficult. Two JCBs and a crane had to be deployed to uproot and remove the wrecked vehicle before the bodies could be retrieved. The operation took several hours under difficult conditions.
Three survivors were pulled from the wreckage and shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment, though their conditions remain serious. Police said a case has been registered and an investigation is underway to determine the exact cause of the accident — whether it was due to overspeeding, poor visibility, or a lane violation.
The highway saw disrupted traffic for several hours after the crash as rescue teams worked at the scene. Transport officials have promised a thorough probe into the circumstances surrounding the collision.
