3 killed, two injured as car crashes into stationary crane in MP''s Betul district

Betul, Mar 3 (PTI) Three men were killed, and two others sustained injuries after their speeding car crashed into a crane parked on the roadside in Madhya Pradesh's Betul district in the wee hours of Tuesday, police said.

The accident occurred between 2.30 am and 3 am on Itarsi Road when the victims were returning after dinner at a dhaba, Kotwali police station house officer (SHO) Devkaran Dehriya told PTI.

The impact left the car completely mangled, and the police had to break the doors and windows to extricate those trapped inside, he said.

The victims were shifted to the district hospital in a 108 ambulance and private vehicles, where doctors declared three of them dead, he added.

The deceased included Hrithik Solanki (30), who was driving the vehicle, and his friends, Varun Prajapati (21) and Abhay Thakur (22), all locals, Dehriya said.

Deva Pandey (32) and Akash Pal (30), both from Betul, were injured in the crash, and one of them has been rushed to Nagpur for treatment, he added.

The car appears to have been driven at a high speed. Investigations are on, and the CCTV cameras of the area are being scanned, the official said. PTI LAL ARU