35–40 vehicles crash in massive Rohtak pile-up as dense fog turns Haryana highway into a blind spot

Haryana reports multiple chain collisions in dense fog as IMD flags very low visibility risk; Delhi-NCR simultaneously moves into GRAP-IV after AQI breaches 450.

At least 35–40 vehicles, including trucks and buses, were involved in a massive chain collision on a highway in Haryana’s Rohtak district on Sunday morning after dense fog reduced visibility to a minimum, leaving several drivers and passengers injured and vehicles damaged.

The worst crash was reported from the Meham area, where a truck and a car collided at a highway intersection, triggering a pile-up involving dozens of vehicles, most of them heavy trucks.

Police and local teams were deployed to move the injured to hospitals and clear the highway stretch, officials said.

Two other major accidents were reported from Haryana on fog-hit highways, including in Hisar and Rewari, according to NDTV.

In Hisar, a chain collision was reported at Dhiktana Moda on National Highway 52 around 8:00 am after a Haryana Roadways bus from Kaithal rammed into a dumper truck in poor visibility. A second state transport bus coming from behind then struck the vehicles already involved. A car and a motorcycle were also part of the crash sequence, the report said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD), in a press release issued Sunday afternoon, warned that dense fog is 'very likely' in morning hours in isolated pockets across multiple states, including Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh on December 15 and 16. It also flagged the risk of 'very dense' fog over Uttar Pradesh on December 15.

IMD’s bulletin also recorded visibility dropping below 50 metres at isolated pockets in Uttar Pradesh in recent observations, with low visibility reported in Haryana and 'moderate to dense fog' over Delhi-NCR.

The fog-hit morning in Haryana came as Delhi-NCR’s air quality deteriorated sharply, with AQI readings crossing the 450 'severe plus' threshold at multiple stations, the worst spell of the season so far, prompting authorities to enforce Stage IV of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP-IV).

Under GRAP-IV, authorities tightened emergency curbs including restrictions on truck entry and a halt on construction activities, among other measures.