Gwalior, Oct 19 A day after 15 devotees were killed near a temple in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior, the police are probing if the driver was under the influence of alcohol or had taken a Google Maps shortcut when he crashed his truck into a crowd, an official said on Monday.
At least 15 people were killed and more than 25 injured when a speeding truck ploughed into devotees outside the 125-year-old Sheetla Mata temple around 1.30 am on Sunday.
According to the police, the two paddy-laden trucks, allegedly overloaded, travelled around 7 km along a road where heavy vehicles were prohibited before one of them went out of control near the shrine.
The driver, Bilbagh Singh, a 40-year-old Delhi resident, was arrested hours after fleeing the crash site. He was found hiding near the shrine in a state of shock, Jhansi Road police station’s acting station house officer Ashish Sharma said.
“We have collected a blood sample of the driver to ascertain whether he was under the influence of alcohol when the truck entered the restricted road and ran over devotees waiting for darshan,” Sharma told PTI.
Police were also probing whether the driver had followed a Google Maps shortcut, which directed him towards the temple, he said.
Addressing reports that the truck was carrying 32 tonnes of paddy, Sharma said the vehicle had not yet been officially weighed, though preliminary findings confirm it was heavily loaded.
According to locals, two trucks travelling from Bhitarwar towards Punjab bypassed the main highway and took the Chinaur-Amrol route after drivers became lost on unfamiliar rural roads.
Villagers near Amrol said that they had cautioned the drivers that the road ahead was closed for heavy vehicles. But the drivers pressed on, with locals claiming they smelled alcohol on their breath.
Despite a designated police checkpoint on the Chinaur route, both trucks passed through unhindered towards the shrine, when an estimated one lakh devotees had gathered for Ashtami celebrations.
As the road narrowed near a steep incline, one truck came to a halt while the other one barrelled down the slope out of control, destroying roadside stalls and mowing down devotees before slamming into the temple entrance gate.
The impact destroyed a section of the structure, killing 15 people, including five teenagers and two women.
Locals have raised questions about how two heavy vehicles managed to pass police checkpoints and reach the crowded temple despite restrictions.
Witnesses noted that the vehicle’s collision with the gate prevented it from ploughing further into dense queues of worshippers.
(PTI News)
