US: 6 Indians killed in car crash

Six Indians were killed when a van in which they were travelling to visit Niagara Falls spun out of control and crashed into another car in Erie County in the US state of Pennsylvania.

The mishap took place in West Springfield on Sunday, the police said. At least four of the dead were working with Michigan-based information technology firm Syntel Inc.

The police said just after crossing the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, the van flipped over and crashed into another car coming from the opposite direction.

The driver of the minivan, Kaushik Deb, 26, a resident of Troy, Michigan was killed on the impact.

Five of the six passengers were also killed. They were identified as Manoj Jharia, 35; Mili Jharia, 28; Nitin Agarwal, 29; Swati Agarwal, 25 and Shubham, 24. All were killed on the spot.

Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said two of the people who were killed were thrown from the van. The other four were trapped in the vehicle, a local newspaper reported.

Cook also said the lone survivor from the minivan, Nitin Gupta, 28, was uninjured in the wreck but received minor cuts and scrapes as rescue crews pulled him out of the van.

Gupta and Melanie Cesnick, 25, the driver of the other car, were shifted to a hospital. Gupta was treated and released, the report said.

Cesnick was taken to the emergency room, but she did not have life-threatening injuries, a nursing supervisor said.

A friend of the victims, who was travelling ahead in another van, told the paper that a group of 13 people were going from Michigan to Niagara Falls for a vacation. The police said there was no apparent cause of the crash.