Five injured as truck collides with van

Five persons were injured, some of them critically, when a truck they were travelling in met with an accident.

The incident occurred late Thursday night when the victims who were all handicraft artists were returning home ina truck to Kaliaganj in Uttar Dinajpur from Chakchaka area in Cooch Behar. They put up stalls of various handicrafts item in a fair in Cooch Behar. After the fair was over, these artists took a truck to return home on Thursday night. The incident led to traffic jam in the area for an hour.

The accident happened when the truck collided head on with a pick up van. The driver and the helper of the pickup van were also injured in the incident. The local residents heard a loud thud and rushed to the spot. They rescued the injured people and took them to Mainaguri primary health centre.

Three of the five inured persons were shifted to Jalpaiguri hospital as their condition deteriorated. After being informed, police reached the spot and started an investigation. They seized both the vehicles. According to the preliminary investigation, police suspect that the truck driver lost control and hit the pickup van. Police are not ruling out the possibility of low visibility to be the cause of the accident.