Assam: Five killed as van collides with truck in Sonitpur

Five people were killed in Assam’s Sonitpur district after their vehicle collided head-on with a truck on National Highway 15 late Friday night, police said on Saturday.

The accident took place in the Balipara area at around 11:30pm on Friday. The truck driver is yet to be traced, police officers said.

“The incident was reported at around 11:30pm and a police team went to the spot where they found five critically injured men. They were taken to a nearby government hospital where two of them were declared dead on arrival while three others succumbed during treatment,” senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Sonitpur, Barun Purkayastha, said.

Police have identified the deceased as Harobinda Hazoary (38), Pranjal Bania (39), Sanjay Mech (39), Papu Borah (45) and Nayan Swargiary (45), all of them residents of Batabari.

They were travelling from Tezpur town to Rangapara in a Maruti Suzuki Eeco van and the truck was coming from the opposite direction when the two vehicles collided, police officers said.

“We are trying to find the reason behind the collision but initial investigation suggests that the Eeco van lost control and crossed into the opposite lane before hitting the truck. The driver of the truck has been missing,” an officer said.

Locals who witnessed the accident said that both the vehicles were at high speed and the Eeco van entered the opposite lane after losing control, and the impact of the collision was massive. “The sound was massive and it was heard from our houses,” a local who informed the police said.

Police have taken both vehicles into custody and sent the five bodies to Sonitpur Civil Hospital for postmortem.

The Assam government has been promoting road safety measures and, according to chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the number of fatalities has decreased in recent years.

However, according to the state government, nearly 4,000 road accidents have been reported in the state this year so far, and the number of deaths is in the hundreds.