4 killed as car, truck collide on Pinjore-Baddi highway

PANCHKULA: Four persons, including the general manager of a pharma company based in Baddi, were killed when their car collided head-on with a truck near Kiratpur village on the Pinjore-Baddi highway this morning. The victims have been identified as Aghosh Gopalan (45), a resident of Panchkula and general manager of the company, Babu Pillai (48) and Sanjay Kumar (34), both residents of Zirakpur, and Vipin Kumar (38), a resident of Mohali.

The mangled remains of the car that collided with a truck near Kiratpur village on the Pinjore-Baddi highway on Tuesday morning. Tribune photo

Tribune News Service
Panchkula, October 23

Four persons, including the general manager of a pharma company based in Baddi, were killed when their car collided head-on with a truck near Kiratpur village on the Pinjore-Baddi highway this morning.

The victims have been identified as Aghosh Gopalan (45), a resident of Panchkula and general manager of the company, Babu Pillai (48) and Sanjay Kumar (34), both residents of Zirakpur, and Vipin Kumar (38), a resident of Mohali.

The impact of the accident was such that the car was completely damaged. Aghosh Gopalan and Sanjay Kumar died on the spot, while Babu Pillai, Vipin Kumar and the driver of the car, Kamaldeep, were seriously injured. They taken to the General Hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula, from where Babu and Vipin were referred to the PGI, where they succumbed to their injuries.

One of the employees of the pharma company said the victims were on their way to Baddi for shift duty in the car hired by the company. As soon as they reached a narrow passage on the under-construction national highway near Kiratpur village, the car driver reportedly lost balance due to deep potholes on the road and hit the truck coming from the opposite side.

An eyewitness said on condition of anonymity that fatal accidents had become routine on this stretch. He said work on four-laning of the road was going on at a slow pace and there were deep potholes on the road due to the movement of heavy trucks.

Rajbir, additional SHO, Pinjore, said a case had been registered and both vehicles impounded. He said the driver of the truck fled from the spot, leaving the vehicle behind. He said the body of Aghosh was handed over to his kin after a postmortem at the Civil Hospital, Kalka, while they were initiating the process for conducting the postmortem of the other three.