Car mishap leads to jam on Manali highway

MOHALI: Collision between a car and truck lead to a massive traffic jam on the busy Chandigarh-Manali highway and left hundreds of commuters stranded on the stretch for more than two hours on Tuesday.
Serpentine queues were seen after a Maruti Zen car of a Sector-48 resident from Chandigarh— Dharambir Singh— was rammed by a speeding truck from behind.The accident caused the entire traffic to come to a standstill. Dharambir, who was travelling along with his wife to Ludhiana for Rakshabandhan festival, sustained some injuries but was stated to be stable.
According to police, the car was rammed by a rashly-driven truck. "We have registered a case against the unidentified truck driver, who subsequently fled from the accident site," cops stated, adding that although the car was removed from the accident site after taking mandatory photographs, it took a while to get the truck removed from the spot as the driver had taken away its key. Cops also stated that both Dharambir and his wife were taken to civil hospital, Kharar, where they were given first aid and their condition was stated to be stable. The accident delayed the plans of various families which were on their way to visit kin on the occasion of Rakshabandhan.
One of the commuters, Akash Goyal, a resident of Phase IV, Mohali, stated that he had to wait for almost one-hour-and-a-half hour for the highway to re-open.
"I had to come back to Chandigarh to attend a meeting with investors from Chennai. I had to reschedule the whole thing as I could not get back to the city in time," he stated.
Faced with a similar situation, Suman Bhatia, who was on her way back to Jalandhar from Mohali after tying rakhi on her brother's wrist, said, "My husband and I were stranded for more than two hours. I had to get back to Jalandhar as my mother-in-law was to leave for Jaipur in the afternoon. She had to cancel her trip as there was no one to take care of my two little children back home."