- Two children only survivors of family on way to wedding
OUR CORRESPONDENT
The mangled car and the truck with which it had collided at Kanki on Monday. Picture by Mehedi Hedaytullah
Islampur, Jan. 25: A Sikkim-based businessman and four of his family members were killed today when the Bolero in which they were travelling to a relative’s wedding collided head-on with a truck coming from the opposite direction at Kanki.
Two children, aged nine and 10, are the only survivors of the crash that also killed the driver of the car.
The car had switched lanes on NH31 to avoid traffic congestion caused by a truck that had overturned on the road.
At 7am, when the accident occurred, there was dense fog. Sunil Das, who has a shop in Kanki Bazaar, was on his way to open his store when he saw the white Bolero streak past and smash into the speeding truck coming from Dalkhola or the opposite direction.
“I had closed my eyes at the last moment. The noise of metal screeching against metal made me realise that the worst had happened,” said Das. The noise brought out many people out of their houses and Kanki police outpost was informed.
The local people helped police bring out the dead and the injured.
Among the dead is the Singtam unit president of the Bihari Jagran Manch Ram Bhajan Prasad, 53, his wife Mina Devi, 40, and the couple’s 15-year-old daughter Sabita. The other three dead persons have been identified as the wife of Prasad’s nephew, Parvati, 35, his neighbour Kailash Devi, 35, and the driver of the car, Vikash Dorgi, 23.
Parvati’s daughter Dali, 9, and Kailash’s 10-year-old child Manisha have been admitted to M.G.M. Hospital at Kishanganj in Bihar, 17km from the spot on NH31 where the accident occurred.
While three persons died on the spot, the others succumbed to their injuries at the hospital.
Sources in the police said the family, which runs grocery stores in Sikkim, originally is from Chhapra in Bihar where they were headed this morning to attend a wedding.
The secretary of the Bihari Mancha’s Singtam unit, Subhas Prasad, who arrived at the hospital at Kishanganj, said the family had set out from their home for Chhapra at 2am.
The two children were shifted to a Siliguri nursing home late in the evening. “They have suffered head injuries. But they have not been told about the death of their mothers or the other relatives,” Subhas Prasad said over the phone.
Officer-in-charge of Chakulia police station Madhab Das said the bodies had been sent to Kishanganj hospital for post-mortem.
Das said the truck driver had fled the area, leaving his vehicle behind.
The subdivisional police officer of Islampur, Indra Chakraborty, said: “The Bolero, which was in high speed, took another lane to avoid the jam caused by an overturned truck. There was dense fog in the area at that time. The Bolero rammed into the truck coming from the opposite direction.”
Chakraborty said the bodies would be handed over to the family members this evening after the autopsy.
