Five killed, 7 hurt in road accidents

Our Correspondent

Abohar, February 24

In all, five persons were killed and seven were injured in different road accidents in Abohar and neighbouring segments of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh on Monday.

After a head-on collision between two trucks near Raziasar on the Sriganganagar-Bikaner highway, a fire broke out due to a short circuit in one of the engine wires, resulting in the death of two. The deceased have been identified as truck driver Gulzar Singh (37) of Rasulpur village in Zira tehsil of Ferozepur district, and truck cleaner Manoj Bishnoi (23) of Jangloo village in Nokha tehsil of Bikaner. The two had reportedly got trapped in their respective cabins of respective trucks when the incident happened.

Raziasar SHO Suresh Kaswan and DSP Vidya Parkash said some villagers were able to rescue driver Devi Lal Bishnoi (40) of Nokha and cleaner of another truck Hari Singh of Bharana village in Zira tehsil (Ferozepur).

After the fire tenders had controlled the situation in about 1 hour, the charred bodies were extracted. Traffic on the highway was restored after about two hours. Both Devi Lal and Hari Singh have been shifted to a trauma centre in Suratgarh.

In another incident, driver of a mini truck, Surjit Kumar of Killianwali in Muktsar, was killed and his assistant Ram Kishore was injured as their vehicle collided near Alamgarh village near Abohar with another truck that was transporting apples from Jammu to Mumbai. Persons travelling in the truck escaped unhurt.

After a Scorpio van driver reportedly lost control over the vehicle, Subhash Chander (25) was killed and five persons, including driver Sudhir, Anil, Harish and Kartar Ram, were injured. The car overturned near Kelnia village on the Hanumangarh mega highway. The injured were admitted to the Civil Hospital, Hanumangarh.

A biker, Rajpal Singh (42), was returning to Dholipal village when his vehicle hit a stray bull on the Abohar-Sadulshehar road. Singh was killed on the spot.