Sixteen people, including four women, were killed and 25 others injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck transporting gas cylinders in Jharkhand’s Pakur district on Wednesday morning, police said.
According to the police, the accident took place around 8.30 am on Govindpur-Sahebganj state highway near Kamardiha village in Amrapara police station area. The passenger bus, with 40 on board, was heading to Jasidih in Deoghar from Barharwa in Sahibganj district when it collided with a truck transporting LPG cylinders, police added.
“The injured have been referred to Dhanbad, Dumka and Patna as well. At least three of them are critical. Till now 16 casualties have been confirmed,” said Pakur superintendent of police Hrudeep P Janardhanan.
Police have identified 14 out of the 16 deceased passengers, with maximum five belonging to Sahebganj district, three each from Dumka and Pakur, two from Deoghar and one from West Bengal. Identity of two deceased passengers was yet to be established, police said.
The impact of the accident was such that the front ends of both the vehicles got stuck to each other. Both the bus and the truck were speeding, and it is suspected that heavy fog in the area, which brought down the visibility, led to the accident, police said.
{{/usCountry}}The impact of the accident was such that the front ends of both the vehicles got stuck to each other. Both the bus and the truck were speeding, and it is suspected that heavy fog in the area, which brought down the visibility, led to the accident, police said.
{{/usCountry}}Several people were trapped inside the bus, and they were being brought out after dismantling the vehicle with gas-cutters, police said. Fortunately, none of the gas cylinders on the truck exploded, otherwise the accident could have taken many more lives, they added.
Condoling the deaths, Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren directed Pakur district officials to provide all possible relief to the victims.
On the instructions of the chief minister, the district administration will provide ₹1 lakh ex gratia compensation to the next of kin of each of the deceased, said Varun Ranjan, Pakur deputy commissioner.