A truck driver mysteriously fell off the driving seat of a running truck in Jharkhand’s Garhwa district and the vehicle ran over a an old woman out on a morning walk. Both the driver and the woman died on the spot in the freak accident that occurred on the Kutchery road in Garhwa town on Monday morning.
The truck finally stopped after hitting the walls of a small bridge and an electric pole and damaging the electric transmission lines near 500 metres ahead on the Garhwa-Nagar Untari road.
The exact reason for the driver falling from the truck, which was on its way to Renukut from Jamshedpur, could not be immediately ascertained. The Garhwa police have begun investigation in this regard.
This is the second such incident in Garhwa within a week. A day after Diwali, the driver and the cleaner of a truck had abandoned the speeding vehicle by jumping off it the vehicle hit a villager on National Highway-75. The truck later had gone on to hit two others. However, both survived.
The woman who died in Monday’s incident was identified as Kamla Devi (65). She was the resident of the same locality and was out on a morning stroll with two other women who managed to escape unhurt. The driver was identified as Raju Mandi, a resident of West Midnapur district in West Bengal.
Binod Singh, an eyewitness, said, “The truck was moving towards Nagar Untari when suddenly we saw the driver falling down. The truck, however, continued to move on. Around 500 metres ahead, it hit a bridge, crushed an old woman and stopped after hitting the electric police. We saw that the driver died on the spot with severe injuries on his head.”
{{/usCountry}}Binod Singh, an eyewitness, said, “The truck was moving towards Nagar Untari when suddenly we saw the driver falling down. The truck, however, continued to move on. Around 500 metres ahead, it hit a bridge, crushed an old woman and stopped after hitting the electric police. We saw that the driver died on the spot with severe injuries on his head.”
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Garhwa Sadar police station officer-in-charge Rajeev Singh said, “Preliminary inquiry into this incident revealed that the driver was probably not wearing the seat belt . His truck was probably hit by another vehicle from the opposite direction, throwing him out...or maybe he was peeping out and fell.”
In a separate incident, one person was killed and three others injured after a speeding pickup van hit an auto rickshaw in Narayanpur village, also under Garhwa Sadar police station area on Monday morning. The mishap occurred when the victims were loading vegetable on the rickshaw. The injured were rushed to Garhwa Sadar hospital for treatment.