California: Six people were killed and two others critically injured in two separate road accidents in California, local law enforcement authorities reported on Wednesday. Among the deceased were three members of an Indian family hailing from Saidabad in Hyderabad, who had been settled in San Francisco for nearly a decade. The fatal collision involving the Indian family took place near Salton City in Southern California while they were travelling by car toward Nevada for a family holiday.
According to local authorities and family members in India, the family’s vehicle was involved in a severe crash with another automobile along the highway. Three passengers—identified as 45-year-old Nazia Salma, her 19-year-old daughter Hafeza Neha Shaikh, and her 14-year-old son Hafez Omer Shaikh—succumbed to their injuries at the scene. The driver of the vehicle, Shaik Abdul Naveed, who works as a director at a pharmaceutical firm in the United States, survived the impact alongside the couple’s younger daughter, Khatija. Both survivors sustained severe injuries and remain in critical condition under intensive care at a nearby medical facility.
The tragedy triggered widespread grief among relatives and neighbours in Hyderabad’s Saidabad neighbourhood as news of the collision reached India. Local political representatives visited the bereaved relatives to extend their condolences, while Naveed’s father appealed to the Ministry of External Affairs to grant emergency travel visas to facilitate their immediate journey to the United States to assist the surviving family members and complete necessary formalities. In a separate road mishap reported in the state, three additional fatalities occurred, bringing the combined death toll across both traffic incidents to six. Local highway patrol officers have opened investigations into both accidents to determine the precise circumstances, speed factors, and potential causes behind the fatal crashes.
