Nine persons were killed when the SUV they were travelling in and a truck collided on NH18 in Purulia’s Balarampur early Friday.
Police said the deceased – all residents of Nimdi in neighbouring Jharkhand – were returning home after attending a wedding of their relative at Barabazaar in Purulia.
When the accident occurred around 6am, there was rainfall in the area.
Traffic came to a halt on the busy road connecting Purulia with Jamshedpur in Jharkhand after the accident. The Bolero and the truck turned turtle on the roadside after the collision.
The severely injured passengers and the driver of the Bolero were stuck inside the mangled vehicle. The driver of the truck, who might have suffered injuries, fled.
Initially, residents of Namshol in Balarampur came to the rescue of the victims.
Later, police arrived and sent all the injured to the nearby rural health centre, where they were declared dead on arrival. The driver of the Bolero was also killed.
“We rushed to their rescue after the accident. The injured were stuck inside the Bolero as the vehicle turned turtle after the accident. We were unable to locate the driver of the truck,” said Shitaram Mahato, a villager.
Abhijit Bandyopadhyay, superintendent of police of Purulia, also reached the spot. He said all the deceased were residents of Jharkhand.
“We came to know that the deceased were residents of Jharkhand and they have come to Purulia’s Barabazaar to attend a wedding. The accident occurred when they were returning home,” he said.
The bodies were sent to Purulia Medical College and Hospital for postmortem.
Sanjay Mahato, a relative of the deceased people, arrived at the hospital after the police contacted him.
“I cannot come to terms with the tragedy. I don’t know what happened,” said Mahato, a resident of Tilaitarh in Jharkhand’s Nimdi.
The deceased were Swapan Mahato, 30, Shashanko Mahato, 35, Bijoy Mahato, 40, Gurupada Mahato, 40, Krishnapada Mahato, 38, Chandra Mohan Mahato, 50, Brihashpati Mahato, 34, Ajay Mahato, 35, and the driver Deepak Mahato, 30. All of them were residents of Nimdi in Jharkhand.
The police said the accident occurred soon after the SUV crossed a sharp turn
near a primary school in Namshol village.
“The accident occurred during profuse rainfall. The drivers of the SUV and truck might have unnoticed each other’s vehicle coming from the opposite direction, soon after crossing the sharp turn, because of the heavy rainfall. The road was also wet and slippery because of the consistent rain in the area,” said a police officer.
Local people said two motorcyclists had been killed in an accident in the same area of the busy highway two days before.