Ghaziabad: Heavy material loaded on truck hits passengers of passing vehicle, 3 dead

Three people from a family were killed and four others people were injured allegedly after heavy equipment mounted on a loader truck hit passengers seated on the roofof a mini pickup truck late on Tuesday on the Upper Ganga Canal (UGC) Road, near Niwari, Ghaziabad, police officials said on Wednesday

Three people from a family were killed and four others people were injured allegedly after heavy equipment mounted on a loader truck hit passengers seated on the roofof a mini pickup truck late on Tuesday on the Upper Ganga Canal (UGC) Road, near Niwari, Ghaziabad, police officials said on Wednesday. Two people have been arrested in the accident.

The accident took place at around 11.45pm on Tuesday as the pickup truck, carrying at least four women and at least one minor girl, headed to Haridwar from Kahirthal-Tijara district in Rajasthan. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

According to police, the accident took place at around 11.45pm on Tuesday as the pickup truck, carrying at least four women and at least one minor girl, headed to Haridwar from Kahirthal-Tijara district in Rajasthan.

Police identified the victims as Sarjit (32), Ratan (30) and Ramesh Kumar (28), residents ofMajiri Gurjar. The details of the injured people was not immediately available. All of them were sitting on the roof the pickup truck.

Police received information about the incident around 12.30am.

“All injured were rushed to a hospital, but three of them were declared brought dead. The other injured are stable. The driver and the co-driver were arrested and the loader truck was seized,” deputy commissioner of police Surendra Nath Tiwari told HT.

Senior police officials said that they have seized the loader truck and arrested its driver (38) and the conductor (18). Both are residents of Bhilwara, Rajasthan.

An FIR was registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 281 (rash or negligent driving on a public way) and 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) on Wednesday on the basis of a complaint by the pickup truck driver Mahipal Singh.

The report, seen by HT, said the driver was taking his relatives and other villagers to Haridwar to “collect Ganga Jal and bring it back during the Kanwar Yatra”.

At the site of the accident, the loader truck was speeding and coming from the wrong side of the two-laned road.

While he moved the pickup truck out of the way, parts of the massive industrial machinery loaded on the truck hit the people sitting on the roof, he alleged.

Speaking to HT, Fateh Singh, a relative of the three victims, said that Sarjit and Ratan were his cousins and while Ramesh was his nephew.

“The three started their journey, accompanied by other relatives and villagers, on Tuesday evening from our hometown to Haridwar in the pickup truck for the Kanwar Yatra,” he said, adding that the bodies had been taken back to their hometown after the autopsy on Wednesday.

“When a police team reached the spot, three people were found dead. The injured were rushed to the hospital,” assistant commissioner of police (ACP) (Modinagar) Bhaskar Verma told HT, adding, “According to initial information the pickup truck was taking people to Haridwar for a holy dip.”