January 19, 2026
LUCKNOW – Severe cold and dense fog continued to wreak havoc across Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, leading to a series of tragic road accidents.
Poor visibility caused at least 22 road accidents in different districts of the state, involving nearly 70 vehicles. As a result, 12 people lost their lives, and around 75 others were injured, several of them seriously.
The worst pile-up occurred in Amroha, where 15 vehicles collided with each other amid dense fog, causing long traffic jams on the highway. One person was killed in the incident.
Fatal accidents were also reported from Kanpur and Amethi (two deaths each), while Barabanki, Kasganj, Muzaffarnagar, and Mainpuri reported one death each.
In Bareilly, a major accident took place around 8 am near the Dwarikesh Sugar Mill in the Faridpur police station area. Due to extremely low visibility, a truck, a canter, and several buses collided one after another. The driver of a UPSRTC bus, Atar Singh, died on the spot.
Another serious accident was reported from Ayodhya on the Lucknow–Ayodhya National Highway near Rauzagaon around 9 am. A speeding truck lost control in the fog and rammed into a double-decker bus travelling from Jaipur to Gorakhpur. The impact caused the truck to overturn, leaving six bus passengers injured. Three critically injured passengers were referred to the Ayodhya District Hospital. Police said the truck was exiting a sugar mill when the accident occurred due to poor visibility.
In Hapur’s Garhmukteshwar, a bus and two auto-rickshaws collided on National Highway-9 and fell into a deep roadside ditch. More than a dozen passengers are feared injured.
In Kanpur’s Sujatganj area, a speeding Innova car hit two cyclists in dense fog, killing both on the spot. Panic prevailed at the scene following the accident.
In Barabanki, a head-on collision between an Innova and an Ertiga, followed by a bus crash, left one man dead and eight injured. In Muzaffarnagar, a 38-year-old man named Sunny died while returning home from work. In Lakhimpur Kheri, four people were injured in a collision between a tempo and a pickup vehicle. In Kasganj, a tractor-trolley overturned, killing a 40-year-old man and seriously injuring his nephew. In Shravasti, a car got trapped between two trucks on NH-730, leaving four people seriously injured.
In Shamli, a car was hit by a dumper in heavy fog, critically injuring two occupants. The dumper driver fled the scene. In Amroha, multiple accidents claimed three lives, including a woman travelling after a Ganga bath and a labourer returning from Haryana, when a pick-up vehicle overturned.
Police and administration teams remained busy throughout the day, conducting rescue operations and clearing traffic from accident-prone highways.
The cold wave and dense fog conditions are expected to persist, raising concerns over road safety in the coming days.