Meerut tragedy: Class 4 girl dies in school van crash; 6 others injured as overloaded truck hits vehicle carrying Army school kids

MEERUT: A 10-year-old Class 4 girl of Army Public School in Meerut cantonment area died and six other students suffered injuries when an overloaded truck sideswiped their school van while overtaking in Kankar Khera area of UP’s Meerut on Thursday morning.An eyewitness, requesting not to be named, said, “The CNG cylinder of the school van got detached and leaked. Luckily, the students were rescued on time, otherwise the mishap could have been worse.”District magistrate V K Singh said, “The assistant regional transport officer is investigating the claim of the eyewitness. We are also checking if both vehicles had fitness certificates.”“Children of defence personnel were in the school van and they were rushed to a nearby military hospital immediately. To improve road safety, we have tasked the ARTO and SP Traffic to identify loopholes and take steps to plug these.”SSP (Meerut) Vipin Tada told TOI, “A girl student of Class 4, Aarya Singh, died while six other students suffered injuries in the crash. The injured were rushed to a military hospital. Two students suffered fractures and were referred to a military hospital in Delhi. The other four injured students are stable.”“Soon after the accident, both the drivers fled, and efforts are on to trace them. We are in the process of filing a FIR. The body of the victim has been sent for post-mortem examination,” said Tada.