Kolkata: Nine persons were killed in a road accident in Purulia on Friday morning after a car collided head-on with a truck.
According to sources, eight persons from Nimdih in Jharkhand had travelled to Adabana village in the Barabazar area of Purulia. On Friday morning, around 6:30 am, they were returning to Nimdih in the same car via National Highway (NH)-18. At the same time, a truck coming from Jharkhand was approaching from the opposite direction.
Near Namshol village in the Balarampur area, the car and the truck collided head-on.
The impact was so severe that the car was completely mangled. Local residents rushed to the spot and began rescuing the injured. Police arrived shortly after, and all the car occupants, including the driver, were taken to a nearby health centre, where they were declared brought dead.
Preliminary investigations suggest that overspeeding may have caused the accident. The collision led to a traffic snarl on NH-18, which was cleared after about an hour once the wreckage was removed and normal vehicular movement resumed.