Gwalior Temple Truck Crash Kills At Least 14; Chief Minister Removes City SP, Suspends 8 Police

A truck loaded with paddy ran down a slope and into worshippers outside the Sheetla Mata temple in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior district at about 1:30 am on Sunday, Oct. 18. Officials put the death toll at 14, and some accounts say 15. Reported injury counts range from 27 to more than 40.

The truck, which had a Punjab registration, then hit the temple's entrance gate. The impact brought down a section of the temple wall and trapped people under the debris. The temple is about 20 km from Gwalior city.

What happened at the temple

Thousands of devotees had gathered for Navratri prayers, and Saptami night drew a large crowd from Gwalior and surrounding districts. Police said heavy vehicles were barred from the area because of the crowd.

The truck came in from the Chinor Road side. It crushed five or six prasad stalls and several people waiting for darshan, police said. Collector Ruchika Chouhan said it broke through police barricades. Two police personnel were injured trying to stop it.

The dead include several teenagers and two women, according to officials. Seven of the injured were reported in critical condition. The victims came from Gwalior, Shivpuri and Sheopur, the chief minister said.

An investigator told PTI the driver swerved left as the vehicle ran out of control. Had it continued straight, he said, it would have hit 600 to 700 more people.

The driver and the truck

Police have arrested the truck's owner, Mohit Singh, and the driver, Dilbag Singh. The superintendent of police said both are from Punjab and were detained in Dholpur district, Rajasthan, after the driver left the scene.

According to the superintendent of police, the driver told investigators the brakes began to malfunction on the uphill climb and failed completely at the slope. Police said a medical test is being done to check whether he was driving under the influence. Officers also said he was following GPS navigation.

That is the driver's account and a preliminary police finding, not a confirmed cause. The Regional Transport Office has been asked to examine the vehicle.

Chief minister's response

Yadav ordered the City Superintendent of Police removed and suspended three station house officers, a traffic inspector, a head constable and three constables. In a post on X he said the action was for negligence and promised a detailed investigation "so that responsibility can be fixed and strict action ensured against the guilty." The Hindu identified the removed officer as Ravi Bhadoriya.

Speaking to reporters in Indore, Yadav said "the accident occurred because the truck entered a prohibited area." He also directed the district administration to produce a fact-based inquiry report.

The state will pay Rs 4 lakh to the families of each of the dead, Rs 2 lakh to each seriously injured person and Rs 50,000 to others hurt. Treatment is free. The Prime Minister's Office announced a further Rs 2 lakh from the PMNRF for each deceased person's next of kin and Rs 50,000 for each injured person.

Families want answers

Relatives gathered at the post-mortem facility at Gwalior's trauma centre, and many were angry. They asked how a heavy truck could reach a spot where, they said, not even a bicycle could pass. Vehicles are supposed to be parked about a kilometre from the shrine.

Lokendra Singh Tomar, nephew of victim Sarla Tomar, asked how the truck was allowed in despite the security arrangements. His aunt was on her way to pray. "He demanded answers from those responsible," he told reporters.

Other devotees alleged poor security and a slow emergency response. One family said their son reached a hospital around 4 am, roughly two and a half hours after the crash, and died. "If the accident happened before 2 o'clock, why was he brought here at 4?" a relative asked. Officials have not responded publicly to that specific allegation.

The official explanations do not line up neatly. The chief minister blames the truck's entry into a prohibited zone, yet he disciplined nine police officers, which means his own government sees a failure of enforcement or crowd control. Police describe a mechanical failure and a driver who lost control on a slope. Police have not said how the truck got past the diversions and checkpoints. Accounts also differ on whether officers stopped the truck at a barricade before it lost control or whether it simply crashed through.

What comes next

The district administration's report is due, and the police investigation is continuing. Investigators are waiting on the driver's medical test and the RTO's inspection of the truck's brakes. Until those results are in, the question of who allowed a loaded truck onto a crowded approach road on one of the busiest nights of the festival remains open.