Five of family killed as car rams into truck

Kolkata: Five members of a family were killed in a road accident, in which their car collided head-on with a truck at Goghat on Kamarpukur-Midnapore Road early on Sunday morning. The accident took place when they were returning from Digha after a weekend trip.

The reason behind the accident is yet to be ascertained, but police suspect that the driver of the car had fallen asleep, which led to the incident that claimed five lives.

Police said that the victims were residents of Arambagh. They had boarded the ill-fated Bolero from Digha after spending three days there. Almost everyone in the car had fallen asleep.

Police suspect that the driver had also fallen asleep and it led to the accident.

A local tea stall owner, Monotosh Jha, who witnessed the incident, told police that both the truck and the Bolero were moving at top speed. He heard a loud sound and found that the Bolero was completely wrecked.

Local people rushed to the spot and found that it was not possible to bring the victims out of the car. The police were informed.

Police used electric cutters to cut open a portion of the car and brought the victims out. They were taken to Arambagh Sub-divisional Hospital where they were declared brought dead.

Police said that they heard from some who witnessed the incident that the driver of the car had made an attempt to avoid the collision, but it was too late when the driver saw the sand-laden truck in front of it and couldn't steer the car fast enough to evade the collision.

The incident led to traffic congestion in the area. Cranes were engaged to remove the vehicles and senior police officers took around half an hour to clear the traffic jam.