Two teenagers among 5 killed in Jalpaiguri van mishap

Kolkata: Three women and two teenagers were killed and four others injured after the vehicle they were travelling in collided head-on with a dumper truck at Todalpara in Jalpaiguri early on Thursday morning.

The injured were taken to Jalpaiguri Super Specialty Hospital and later admitted to Siliguri Medical College and Hospital in a critical condition. The victims had come to Jalpaiguri to attend a marriage ceremony on Wednesday and were on their way back home at Kuchlibari in Cooch Behar when the accident occurred.

The ill fated vehicle, a Mariti van, had 10 people on board.

There was dense fog when the victims left for Cooch Behar, ignoring repeated requests by the host not to travel in fog. The van was moving at a high speed despite poor visibility. The driver, who could not see anything, came in front of a dumper truck and collided with it head on. The impact of the collision was so severe that the front of the van was completely wrecked.

Alerted by the loud noise, local people rushed to the spot and found the van in the middle of the road. The passengers who got trapped, screamed for help. Local people tried to bring them out and informed the police. The driver of the dumper truck had fled the spot. Traffic along the road was disrupted. The entire area was covered with shards of glass and blood.

Meanwhile, police arrived at the spot and when all the victims were taken out of the vehicle, it was found that five of them, including two teenagers, had already died. They were identified as Jaya Roy (42), Sabita Roy (36), Rajeshwari (43) and two teenagers Joy Roy (14) and Dipsikha Roy (13). The injured were taken to the Jalpaiguri Super Specialty Hospital and later admitted to Siliguri medical College and Hospital.

The police said they had repeatedly requested people to avoid travelling early in the morning because of dense fog. But most of the drivers ignore the warning and have a tendency to drive fast on the near-empty road. Police said the accident could have been averted had the vehicle been driven at lower speeds.