PATEL, Hershad (Dr.)

Wickenburg Sun, Wickenburg, AZ July 14, 1966, p.1 & 4 Highway Toll At 10 As Crash Claims 7 In a tragic split second last Thursday evening the total of highway fatalities for the year in the Wickenburg patrol district jumped from 3 to 10. Seven people died in a head-on crash on the Phoenix Highway in the town of Wittmann. Three of the victims were young doctors from India who had done internship in hospitals in the East. They and their wives who died with them were returning from Las Vegas in a station wagon which collided head on with a sedan driven by Laudelino Y. Avelino, age 52, a farm worker from the Harquahala Valley. Two of the injured women were brought by ambulance to Community Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival. Their identity could not be established at the time. A fourth doctor and his wife were taken to a Glendale hospital with critical injuries. Killed in the accident were Avelino; Dr. Ashokkumar N. Zaveri, 29, and his wife Nalini, 24, of Bombay, India; Dr. Kumalpai H. Shah and his wife Kishore, both 27, also of Bombay, and Dr. Hershad Patel, 24, and his wife Darunika, 20, both of McKeesport, Pa. Admitted to Northwest Hospital in Glendale were Dr. Gulab Shah and his wife Anita, both 27, of Bellevue Hospital, New York City. Highway Patrolman Joseph (Fred) Lizarrage, the investigating officer, told the SUN the head on crash occurred almost directly in front of Lee Pollock’s service station in East Wittmann. From the reports of eye witnesses and the position of the two wrecked vehicles Lizarrage and Sgt. Bill Hanger of the patrol believe that both the westbound Ford Sedan driven by Aveline and the eastbound Rambler station wagon in which the four doctors and their wives were riding were on the wrong side of the road just before the crash and were endeavoring to get back into their proper lanes when they met.