Six people, including a husband, wife and their young daughter, were killed and a two-year-old girl was critically injured when a dumper truck collided head-on with a car on National Highway-11 near Shri Dungargarh in Rajasthan's Bikaner district on Monday, the police said.
The victims were returning to Haryana after a pilgrimage to Mukam, a revered religious site of the Bishnoi community. The accident occurred at around 1.30 p.m. near Hotel Sijral under the jurisdiction of Shri Dungargarh police station. The impact was so severe that the car was completely mangled.
According to Shri Dungargarh Circle Officer Niket Pareek, seven people were travelling in the Haryana-registered car. Six of them died on the spot. The deceased were identified as Omprakash (50), son of Bhagirath Bishnoi; his wife Sorma Devi (45); their daughter Pramila (3); Ronit (4), son of Surendra Kumar; Yashvi (10), daughter of Amit; and Khushi (8), daughter of Sandeep.
All were residents of Fatehabad district in Haryana. Tanvi (2), daughter of Sandeep, sustained critical injuries and was initially taken to the Community Health Centre (CHC) in Shri Dungargarh before being referred to the Trauma Centre at PBM Hospital in Bikaner for advanced treatment.
Police said the dumper was travelling from Shri Dungargarh towards Bikaner, while the car was heading in the opposite direction. Following the collision, local residents and police personnel launched a rescue operation and extricated the occupants from the wreckage.
The bodies of the deceased were shifted to the Shri Dungargarh CHC for post-mortem examination, while police initiated an investigation into the cause of the accident. According to CO Pareek, the family was returning to Haryana after paying obeisance at Mukam, the samadhi of Guru Jambheshwar, the founder of the Bishnoi sect and a revered spiritual figure in the community.