In an accident that bears many similarities to the fatal crash at Khanapara, Guwahati, on Diwali night, six Uttarakhand students lost their lives while the seventh is battling for life at hospital.
The accident took place around 1.30am at ONGC Chowk, Dehradun, when the speeding Innova crashed into the rear of the container truck. Such had been the impact that the car was wrecked beyond recognition, similar to the speeding Mahindra Scorpio which crashed into another car near the Khanapara foot-overbridge.
The victims were identified as Kunal Kukreja (23), Atul Agrawal (24), Rishabh Jain (24), Navya Goel (23), Kamakshi (20) and Guneet (19). Except Kunal, who hailed from Chamba in Himachal Pradesh, the rest were from Dehradun.
The sole survivor, Siddhesh Agrawal (25), hosted the booze party Atul threw to celebrate the car his father, a Saharanpur-based businessman, bought on Dhanteras.
The Innova, like the black Scorpio car of Guwahati, was even without license plates, reports added, while CCTV camera footage revealed it was being driven at high speed near the crash site to overtake another luxury car.
The Dehradun students had partied their hearts out and were returning home, drunk, when the speeding Innova rammed the sides of the truck: striking similarity seen here as well as the Khanapara victim, too, had come out of a bar and was intoxicated.
