Six members of a tribal family, including three children and a three-month-old infant, were killed in a head-on collision between a motorcycle and a truck on the Jamner-Bodwad road in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district on Thursday afternoon. The truck driver has been arrested, police said.
The crash occurred around 4pm near a petrol pump between Wadikilla and Maldabhadi, according to the police. The family was travelling on a single motorcycle after working on agricultural fields and was returning towards Jamner when the collision took place.
The victims were identified as Rama Bhilale, 26; Shimla Bhilale, 22; their children Puja, 5, Bharti, 3, and Shravan, three months; and Champalal Bhilale, 28. Jalgaon Superintendent of Police Shreekant Dhivre said the deceased included two men, a woman, two girls and a baby boy.
Police said the victims belonged to a tribal family from Malchi Tanda in Madhya Pradesh’s Burhanpur district. They had come to Jamner for seasonal farm work, placing the crash in the context of migrant agricultural labourers travelling between work locations and their homes.
According to the preliminary investigation, the motorcycle was travelling towards Bodwad when it collided head-on with an oncoming truck. The impact was severe, and all six victims died in the crash, police said. The victims were also declared dead when taken to hospital.
Police and rescue teams reached the location after receiving information about the accident and began investigating the circumstances of the collision. The truck driver was arrested, although the report did not provide details of the charges or the driver’s identity.
The crash also required police to establish contact with the victims’ relatives. Police sources said the relatives were expected to reach Jamner by midnight. Further investigation into the collision was continuing.
