A thick and treacherous blanket of fog led to another serious accident on Punjab's roads early Tuesday morning, when a taxi carrying four men overturned on the Ludhiana-Delhi national highway. This incident adds to a growing list of collisions caused by dangerously low visibility this winter season, prompting urgent renewed warnings from road safety authorities.
Details of the Doraha Highway Accident
The accident occurred near Doraha on Tuesday morning. The four occupants, all residents of Kapurthala district, were identified as Jaswinder Singh, Kewal Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, and Bahadur Singh. They were returning from Delhi after dropping a relative at the airport for a flight to Dubai.
According to a statement given to police by Sukhwinder Singh, the group had briefly stopped for tea near Doraha. As they got back on the road, driver Jaswinder Singh tried to make way for another vehicle. In the "white-out" conditions created by the dense fog, he lost sight of the road's edge and hit the central median. The impact was severe enough to cause the vehicle to flip over.
Rescue and Roadside Response
Quick-thinking onlookers rushed to the scene and managed to pull all four men from the wreckage of the overturned taxi before the Sadak Suraksha Force (SSF) arrived. Sub-inspector Sukhdev Singh, the SSF officer in charge, stated that an ambulance was called promptly, and the injured were first taken to the government hospital in Sahnewal. Due to the serious nature of their injuries, they were later referred to a specialized facility for advanced treatment.
The SSF team worked to clear the mangled vehicle from the highway to prevent any further collisions, a critical task as visibility remained critically poor throughout the morning.
SSF's Critical Fog Safety Advisory
In light of the recurring accidents, the Sadak Suraksha Force has issued a stern advisory for all motorists driving in winter fog. The key protocols include:
- Control Your Speed: Drive at a pace that allows you to stop safely within the distance you can see clearly.
- Avoid High Beams: Use only low-beam headlights, as high beams reflect off fog droplets and create a blinding glare.
- Increase Following Distance: Maintain at least double the normal gap between your vehicle and the one ahead.
- Stay in Lane, Avoid Overtaking: Do not change lanes or attempt to overtake other vehicles until visibility significantly improves.
A Deadly Pattern of Low-Visibility Crashes
The Tuesday morning rollover follows a particularly fatal weekend in the Ludhiana district. On Sunday, poor visibility was blamed for a series of separate accidents in the Doraha and Samrala areas, which resulted in two deaths and five injuries.
One of the most severe incidents was a major multi-vehicle pile-up on the Southern Bypass at Ajnod village. Drivers struggling to navigate through the dense haze led to a collision that claimed one life and left four people injured. These consecutive tragedies underscore the extreme hazard that winter fog poses to highway travel in northern India.
