Five Indian-Americans, including two women, all of them from Gujarat, have been killed in a two-car accident on Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania, Jan. 23.
While four Indian-Americans died on the sport, the fifth person died Jan. 30 in hospital.
News reports identified the dead as Vinod Patel, 68; Komal Vyas, 30; Bhavesh Patel, 42 and his wife Shilpa Bhavesh Patel, 29 as well as Bhaveshkumar Mahendrabh Patel, 42, who was driving the car and died later in hospital.
The accident took place when a speeding vehicle coming from the wrong side had a head-on collision with the car in which they were commuting. The driver of opposite vehicle, identified by police as Gennadiy Manannikov 28, of Lake Ariel, was reportedly drunk. He was, according to earlier report, was in Lackawanna County Prison on $500,000 bail. He has been charged with multiple counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangering and traffic-related violations. Ashley Maureen Wheeler, 42, a passenger in Manannikov’s car, was also killed.
The five Indian-American victims were returning home from work at around 1am when the accident happened, reports said. Except for the married couple, the co-workers were not related.
According to The Times-Tribune.com while Vinod was a native of Khakhariya village of Savli taluka, Shilpa and Bhavesh were from Amreshwar village in Waghodia taluka. Komal was a native of Anand district. It was not immediately clear which taluka, or village was Bhaveshkumar Mahendrabh Patel from.
“I can’t believe that this tragedy continues to grow,” District Attorney Shane Scanlon told The (Scranton) Times-Tribune after the fifth person’s death.
About 500 mourners from the tight-knit Indian-American communities of Northeast Pennsylvania and beyond attended joint funeral services Jan. 30 in Scranton for four of the five Indian-Americans killed in the accident.
Shashikant Kalariya of Waverly, who is a native of India and has been in this area for 43 years, knew Bhaveshkumar Patel. He said the Indian community in the region is reeling from the tragedy.
“So sad, and the way it happened. Those people were here (in America), five years, 10 years, to get a better life,” Kalariya was quoted as saying by Times-Tribune.com.
Two mourners displayed framed portraits of the married couple, Bhaveshkumar Patel, who was driving the Honda, and Shilpa Patel. Their survivors include their infant daughter, Diya, and a young son, Henil.
Kuldeep Dhaliwal of Dupont did not know any of the victims but attended the funerals out of respect for those killed and to support their survivors. “Those little babies (will) never know mom and dad,” Dhaliwal was quoted as saying.
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