Locals block highway as truck runs over mother, daughter

Local people put up a road block and set a truck was set on fire, throwing traffic movement out-of-gear following a road accident on National Highway 6 at Alampur in Howrah in which a 45-year-old woman and her 8-year-old girl were killed after being hit by the truck on Sunday afternoon.

Police said the victim Rashida Begum (45) and her daughter Saina Khatun (8) were residents of Narit at Amta in Howrah. They had come to a relative’s house at Alampur Sunday morning and the accident took place when they were crossing the road to get a bus to return home.

Naresh Santra, a local resident who witnessed the incident, said that the speeding truck had flouted the traffic signal as the road was nearly empty being a Sunday. The driver had failed to control the speeding vehicle and ended up hitting Rashida and her daughter. Both of them died on the spot.

The truck hit the road side railing after ruuning over the mother and daughter. Local people caught both the driver and the helper, and proceeded to beat them up.

A mob set the truck on fire and staged a demonstration when the police reached the spot protesting against frequent accidents at the crossing A fire tender was pressed into service to douse the flames. The culprits were later handed over to the police.

The situation, however, turned worse when some people from the locality put up a road block on the national highway. They demanded posting of more policemen at the spot to man traffic as accidents claiming lives have become quite frequent in the area.

The road block was taken out after almost an hour when senior police officers finally intervened. The incident led to major traffic congestion on the road. Hundreds of vehicles and long distance buses were seen stranded in long queues for hours.

A senior police officer assured local people that more policemen will be deployed at Alampur crossing to check accidents on that stretch of the area.