14 dead in road accident near Dholka in Ahmedabad district

AHMEDABAD: In a tragic incident, 14 persons, belonging to the same village in Rajkot district, died in a road accident late on Friday night. A group from Sokhda in Rajkot had been to Pavagadh in Diwali vacation and was returning to Rajkot when the incident took place. The three survivors are shifted to a private hospital in Bavla for treatment.
The incident took place when a loading truck and an open mini truck collided head-on.The truck driver, accused in the case, fled from the spot leaving the vehicle behind. Koth police station in Ahmedabad district has started search for the accused on the basis of the truck's registration number.
According to Koth police, Hitesh Popatiya, a resident of Sokhda, has registered a complaint against a truck driver for the fatal accident. As per Popatiya’s complaint, the incident took place near Valthera Patiya on Dholka-Koth road around 11.45pm on November 4. It was a head-on collision as the truck driver coming from the opposite direction took the wrong side to get past quickly.
The open mini-truck collided head-on with an approaching truck. (Image: Navgujarat Samay)
"A group of youths from Sokhda had hired an open truck to travel to Pavagadh and had been to the famous temple on Friday along with a few other places on the route and had started homeward journey on Friday evening. There were 17 persons travelling in the vehicle out of which 14 died on the spot. While some got crushed due to impact, others sustained head injuries as the open truck got overturned and they fell on the road," said a police investigator.
The deceased have been identified as Jagdish Vanani, Ramesh Sarvaiya, Damji Sarvaiya, Sanjay Rathod, Rasik Meghani, Jaydeep Jinjariya, Dilip Jinjariya, Jayesh Jinjariya, Mehul Jinjariya, Jay Jinjariya, Shiva Jinjariya, Lala Jinjariya, Sagar Jinjariya and Jitendra Jinjariya, all aged between 20 years and 54 years.
The three survivors include Devraj Haka, 10, Nitin Bhupat, 17, and Hitesh Popatiya, 18, who were shifted to a private hospital in Bavla by EMRI 108 ambulance. Several vehicles were arranged by the local administration to send the bodies to Sokhda.
Police investigators said that the truck involved also has a Rajkot RTO registration and on the basis of which they have started a search for the absconding truck driver.