Five people were killed and four others were injured in a truck-autorickshaw collision on the Saharsa-Bhagalpur state highway-58 under the Chousa police station limits in Bihar’s Madhepura district on the wee hours of Monday.
Police said that the incident took place around 3.30am near Ghoshai Tower when the autorickshaw, in which the victims were travelling to Bhagalpur from Saharsa, rammed into a highway truck. Four of the victims died on the spot while the fifth was succumbed to his injury on the way to hospital. The rescue officials had to cut through the vehicle to retrieve the four bodies.
The Madhepura police identified the victims as—Radhe Ram (60), Kailash Mandal (55), Dhiren Mandal (30), Sohagia Devi (68) and Raja Swarnkar (25)—all residents of Durgapur Bhatti and Bhaluahi villages of Saharsa. The injured have been identified as—Satrahan Mandal (60), Sanjula Devi (55), Ramesh Mandal (40) and Renu Devi (35). All the injured persons have been referred to Bhagalpur from Chousa hospital.
The victims were headed towards Bhagalpur for taking a Holy Dip in Ganga. There were 9 people in the autorickshaw. Police suspect that the incident occurred when the speeding truck lost control and collided head on with the autorickshaw, carrying nine passengers and coming from the opposite direction.
Madhepura SP inspected the accident spot and the mangled remains of the autorickshaw. He asked the officials concerned to implement safety measures to avoid road accidents on the State Highway.
Angry locals are protesting with the four bodies on the state highway. The local villagers have blocked the state highway and disrupted vehicular traffic for more than five hours and are demanding adequate compensation to the next of kin of those killed in the accident. The driver of the truck escaped from the scene, said theSP.
