Eight men were killed and another was critically injured when a truck slammed into their SUV at Jardaha in Jharkhand’s Dumka district, around 280 km northeast of Ranchi early Sunday morning.
Police said the injured person was taken to Sadar hospital Dumka in critical condition. Chief minister Raghbuar Das expressed grief over the road accident. He directed the officials to ensure proper treatment of the injured.
This is the second major road accident in Jharkhand in a week. On January 14, thirteen people including five women and four children were killed after a speeding truck rammed into an auto-rickshaw at Palamdipa area of Jharkhand’s Gumla district.
The victims were job aspirants were on way from Dumka’s Rasikpur area to Deoghar appear in a recruitment exam conducted by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC), said Taljhari police station in-charge Narayani Prajapati.
The JSSC is conducting the examination for the post of panchayat secretary across the state at all district headquarters. The first session of the examination was scheduled from 8:30am on Sunday.
{{/usCountry}}The JSSC is conducting the examination for the post of panchayat secretary across the state at all district headquarters. The first session of the examination was scheduled from 8:30am on Sunday.
{{/usCountry}}Prajapati said that the empty truck which was coming from Deoghar at high speed when it collided with the SUV in which at least nine students were travelling, near Tool Room and Training Centre (TRTC) in Jardaha area around 5:45 am in the morning.
“Students of TRTC immediately rushed to the spot for rescue. However, six people died on spot while two were declared dead in the hospital,” he said, adding, police reached the spot within 15 minutes of the incident.
The police were trying to identify the deceased. “The bodies were brought to the hospital for postmortem,” Prajapati said.
The truck driver is said to have fled after the accident.
Cases of road accidents are on rise in Jharkhand. The state had registered 4,905 cases of road accidents in 2014, which increased to 5,162 in 2015, according to the National Crime Bureau Records (NCRB). Fatalities increased to 2,893 in 2015 from 2,546 in 2014.