Yamuna Expressway tragedy leaves behind mangled remains to sort, children searching for their mother

Her bus on fire, Parvati's motherly instinct told her to dangle her two children out of a broken window to save their lives first, even if it meant catching a shard of glass in her neck and collapsing bleeding.

Her brother-in-law, Gulzari, shared this while searching for her in hospitals, where ambulances were bringing in mangled remains of the deceased, some of the bodies thrust in black polybags.

A pile-up of eight buses and three smaller vehicles on the Agra-to-Noida side of the Yamuna Expressway, shrouded in dense fog, around 4.30 a.m. on Tuesday, 16 December morning, resulted in the death of 13 people and left at least 43 people injured. Flames engulfed the vehicles, reducing them to charred shells and complicating rescue efforts.

Gulzari, who spoke to reporters outside a post-mortem unit in Mathura, said he was told by Parvati's children—Prachi and Sunny—that their mother collapsed inside the bus after she helped them get out. Police said all 13 victims died of burns, and it was hard to identify most of the bodies which were charred.

Senior Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar said the biological remains will be matched with the DNA of those who come looking for their kin.

District Magistrate Chandra Prakash Singh said arrangements are being made for the last rites of those whose bodies have been identified.

The accident was so severe that the sound of the collision was reportedly heard in villages several kilometres away, breaking the early morning silence. Cranes were dispatched to clear the wreckage and reopen the expressway.

"The vehicles collided due to low visibility on the Agra-to-Noida side of the Yamuna Expressway. Some vehicles also caught fire. All injured have been sent to the hospital," Mathura Senior Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar said.

Two of the deceased were identified as 44-year-old Akhilendra Pratap Yadav, a resident of Prayagraj, and 75-year-old Rampal, from Maharajganj district, said SHO Ranjana Sachan of Baldev Police Station, under whose jurisdiction the accident took place.

Of the injured, fifteen were admitted to the district hospital, nine each to a community health centre and a private hospital in Baldev, and two to SN Medical College, Agra, Sachan said.

According to a Mathura Police statement, "None of the injured are in critical condition." One of the injured at a hospital said “There was dense fog. The bus was going to Delhi. Many people have died. I broke my back," he said, as he lay on a stretcher.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in a post on X in Hindi, expressed his condolences to the kin of the deceased. "The loss of life in the road accident on the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura district is extremely tragic and heartbreaking. My deepest condolences are with the bereaved families," he said.

The chief minister’s office announced Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each to the injured.

(With agency inputs)