Pile-up on National Highway 54 leads to traffic jam in Tarn Taran

Traffic came to a halt for hours after a crash triggered a pile-up of seven vehicles on National Highway 54 in front of the District Administrative Complex here on Sunday.

Traffic was restored after hours of the rescue operation carried out collectively by the police and passersby. The police had to call in JCBs and cranes to remove the vehicles involved in the crash from the middle of the national highway road.

However, no casualty was reported. Occurred at about 9 in the morning of Sunday, the incident took place due to the negligence of the driver of a truck trailer (PB-05 AB-1567) laden with material brought from a crusher site. The truck coming from the Madhopur (Gurdaspur) side rammed the rear of four vehicles while two vehicles rammed the rear of the truck trailer.

ASI Rajinder Kumar and ASI Sukhdev Singh from the Sadar police station along with police personnel reached the spot soon after receiving the report of the accident. ASI Sukhdev Singh said though the driver of the truck trailer managed to escape from the spot, his assistant cleaner was caught by the police.

ASI Sukhdev Singh said cranes were called to the spot to remove the damaged vehicles from the road which took hours. After clearing the road, traffic could be restored at 2 pm. The ASI said after getting the complaint from the drivers of the damaged vehicles, the next course of action would be initiated against the truck trailer driver, who is absconding and his assistant cleaner has been held.