3 childhood friends die in high-speed SUV crash on Bhopal-Indore highway

BHOPAL: Three childhood friends were killed and a fourth critically injured when their speeding SUV slammed into a tree and then an electric pole in Khajuri on Bhopal-Indore Highway in the wee hours of Friday.The collision was so severe that the car nearly split in two. Three of the occupants - Pankaj Sisodia, 25, Preet Ahuja, 27, and Vishal Dabi, 25 - died on the spot, Khajuri SHO Neeraj Verma said. All of them were from Aara Machine Road in Bairagarh.The lone survivor, Rahul alias Kunal Kanade, 27, is in hospital where doctors have managed to stabilise his vital parameters, say officials.The SUV - which is now a mangled heap of metal - belongs to Preet's brother Kamlesh, who owns a garments shop in Bairagarh. Preet had taken the SUV without his brother's knowledge for a joy ride with his friends, say police.2 labourers narrowly escape crashThey drove to a dhaba in Sehore for dinner and were on their way back when the accident happened near a petrol pump, around 50km short of Bhopal. CCTV footage from a restaurant shows the SUV over-speeding and slamming headlong into a kiosk, then a tree and the pole around 2am. Police officials said two labourers were sleeping beside the kiosk and narrowly escaped the accident. There was no other vehicle or any stray animal seen during the accident, which suggests that the SUV driver lost control due to high speed, said an officer. Preet was driving the car. It was tough to extricate the bodies from the mangled and twisted metal.