According to police, driver is probably under the influence of alcohol

Rajgarh: The driver of a semi-trailer truck that overturned in Rajgarh district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, killing 13 members of a wedding party, was apparently under the influence of alcohol, police said on Monday.

A survivor claimed that the driver had consumed alcohol before leaving Rajasthan and during the onward journey on Sunday evening.

The driver was a relative of the victims, police said. He was charged with intentional homicide.

Thirteen people, including five women and as many children, were killed and 20 others injured when their tractor-trailer overturned in Piplodi area on Sunday evening, an official said.

The victims, members of a wedding party, were on their way from Motipura area in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan to Kumalapur village when the accident occurred in Pipoldi, 32 kilometres from the Rajgarh district headquarters and about 800 metres from the Rajasthan border.

Of the injured, 16 were admitted to the district hospital while four were taken to Bhopal for further treatment, Rajgarh Police Commissioner Aditya Mishra said. PTI by phone on Monday.

“It is not expected that the number of victims will rise any further. The injured are no longer in danger of dying,” the district hospital said.

The officer said he was informed of the accident around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Seven ambulances were sent to the scene of the accident, he said.

According to members of the wedding party, the man behind the wheel who fled the scene of the accident may have been drunk, the official said.

Mishra said they had filed a complaint against the driver and owner of the tractor-trailer for intentional killing, an “act tantamount to murder,” he said.

“We will ensure that justice is served. We will not treat this as an act of rash and careless driving,” he said.

According to some of the victims, the tractor was driven by a certain Dipak.

Survivor Mamta, the groom’s sister-in-law, claimed that the man driving the tractor trolley was drunk.

“Before we left Rajasthan at around 5pm, he drank alcohol,” she said.

The woman said she asked the man to drink alcohol after arriving at the wedding venue, but he did not listen to her. He also drank alcohol on the way, she claimed.

SP Mishra said there were 30 to 35 people on the tractor-trailer, which was driven and followed by some motorcycles of the wedding party.

The groom, who was traveling on a motorcycle, was unharmed, he said.

According to locals, the groom became unwell when he saw the dead bodies and the crying victims at the accident site and was admitted to the district hospital.

Mishra said the incident was being investigated and her priority was to provide proper treatment to the injured.