Five members of the same family died and one person was critically injured in a horrific road accident in Madhya Pradesh's Maihar district in the early hours of Tuesday. Police said a speeding SUV rammed into a truck moving ahead of it, leaving the car badly damaged. The accident took place around 1 am near Rigra village on National Highway 30, within the limits of the Dehat police station area. The family was returning from a birthday party and was headed to Maihar at the time of the crash.
Impact was so severe that six occupants got trapped inside
Police said the collision was so powerful that the front of the SUV was crushed, trapping all six occupants inside the vehicle. Locals and police personnel worked together to pull everyone out, but by then five of them had already died. Panchraj Singh, in-charge of the Dehat police station, said five people died on the spot while one person remained critically injured.
Injured victim shifted from Amarpatan to Satna
According to the police officer, the critically injured person was first taken to Amarpatan Civil Hospital. His condition worsened during initial treatment there, following which doctors referred him to Satna District Hospital for better care. The deceased have been identified as Ankur Patel (40), Mridul Patel (32), Vijay Patel (30), Harishankar Patel (25) and Shiva Patel (23). Sources said the victims were relatives of local Congress leader Manish Patel.
What NCRB data says about Madhya Pradesh
The accident comes at a time when the latest NCRB data has raised serious questions about road safety in Madhya Pradesh. According to 2024 figures, Madhya Pradesh recorded the second highest number of road accidents in the country, just behind Tamil Nadu, and also featured among the states with the highest number of road accident deaths. The data shows that despite years of efforts to enforce traffic rules and run awareness campaigns, the state continues to see a large number of accidents, deaths and injuries on both city roads and highways.
In 2024, more than 15,152 people died and over 56,000 were injured in road accidents in Madhya Pradesh, making it the fourth most affected state in terms of deaths after Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. The Maihar accident is a fresh reminder of those very numbers and underlines how critical it is to exercise caution while driving on highways at night.
