NASHIK/AGRA/HYDERABAD: Eighteen people were killed and 31 others injured, some of them critically, in three road accidents in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana in the last 24 hours.Ten people were killed and 27 injured after a stone chip-laden truck headed for Mumbai hit 11 vehicles on the Mumbai-Agra national highway and finally ploughed into a roadside dhaba and a bus stand at Palasner in Maharashtra's Dhule district around 10.30am Tuesday.
The deceased include three school students and two women.
The accident occurred 4km from the MP-Maharashtra border.
Dhule collector Jalaj Sharma said it appears that the truck driver lost control over his vehicle due to a brake failure.
In the second accident, six people were killed and three injured when a speeding car collided with an overloaded auto-rickshaw in Kheragarh in Agra district on Monday night.
Agra police commissioner Preetinder Singh said primary investigation suggested that the car driver, Bunty Kumar, who fled the scene, was drunk.
Three women on their morning walk were knocked down by a speeding car in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
A mother-daughter duo died while the lone survivor is critical.
A 19-year-old BBA student, Mohammed Bin Qadri, was behind the wheel.
CCTV footage shows the car swerving at a bend at breakneck speed, mowing down the women before crashing into bushes 50m ahead.