Five killed, 30 injured in two road accidents

Five persons including a child and a woman were killed and 30 were injured in two separate road accidents in Howrah and North Dinajpur. Police said that four persons including a woman were killed when a private bus turned turtle at Udaynarayanpur in Howrah late Wednesday night.

Driver of the speeding bus couldn’t control the vehicle after taking a sharp turn and hit a roadside tree. It subsequently overturned with a portion inside a roadside ditch.

It was raining heavily when the accident took place. Thus there was a delay in initiating the rescue work. When police reached the spot, they found local people rescuing the victims. Around 30 people were brought out of the bus. Later, cranes were engaged to lift the bus. After lifting up the ill-fated vehicle, police found bodies of four persons under the bus.

They had injuries all over their bodies and were bleeding profusely. They were declared brought dead when taken to a local hospital. They were later identified as Nivedita Das (42), Toton Pal (27), Prosenjit Pal (35) and Raja Ghorui (45).

Condition of some of the injured persons was stated to be critical and they were shifted to SSKM Hospital.

The incident led to trouble in the area as local people protested against the delay in initiating the rescue work and racing of buses on the same routes that often lead to fatal accidents.

Some local people alleged that the bus was racing with another one on the same route to reach their destination as early as possible. The buses had been racing for the past 10 minutes and the driver of the ill fated bus didn’t pay heed to caution of the passengers, a police officer said.

In another road accident at Itahar in North Dinajpur, a Class VI student was killed after being hit by a truck on National Highway 34 on Thursday morning. The incident took place when he was returning after taking private tuition class. The victim was a resident of Mirzadighi. The police have seized the truck and the driver was arrested.