Three killed in accident on Agra-Lucknow expressway

AGRA: Three including, a 28-year-old woman, was killed and two others were injured in a road accident on Agra-Lucknow expressway early on Friday. The accident took place around 6 am at Fatehabad toll milestone 21, when the speeding hatchback registered with Farrukhabad RTO rammed into a concrete divider near the plaza.
The deceased were identified as Satyendra Kumar Satyarthi, 36, who hailed from Nekpur Kala in Fatehgarh town of Farrukhabad district, and his distant relatives Ram Bhawan, 40, and Nitu Singh, 28, who belongs to Gomti Nagar in Lucknow.The injured were identified as Pushpendra Satyarthi, 30, who is the younger brother of one of the deceased, and Rachna Pandey, 34, of Sitapur district.
Vivek Dayal, a family friend of the victims, said, "All five were returning from Una in Himachal Pradesh after inaugurating their new company which provides IT solutions. They were heading towards Lucknow when the accident happened."
Rakesh Sagar, senior sub-inspector at Fatehabad police station, said, "The car was driven by its owner Pushpendra Satyarthi when the accident took place. It seems that due to long and exhaustive journey, Pushpendra dozed off at the steering wheel and accelerated at a high speed instead of slowing down at the toll plaza. The car rammed into the toll divider with such speed that car was crushed to half."
"The toll employees quickly rushed to extract the victims from the mangled car, but three of them died on the spot," the cop said.
According to the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), which operates the expressway, 36 people lost their lives in the first quarter of 2019. In 402 road accidents in this period, 222 people were also injured on India's longest expressway.
According to UPEIDA's reply to an RTI query, between August 2017 and March 2019, a total of 2,368 road accidents were reported in which 227 people were killed. Most of them were caused by speeding, drivers dozing off or tyre bursts.