Nine persons, mostly women, were killed and eight others seriously injured as a van carrying them collided head on with a truck at Chandol police outpost Chowk in Kendrapada district in the early morning of Thursday.
Reports said a Tata Ace carrying a marriage light decoration party of 18 persons was returning after working for a marriage procession in a village under Bhadrak district while the accident occurred. The van collided with the truck belonging to the Sachidananda Jatra Paty.The accident was so severe that six persons died on the spot and 11sustained serious injuries. Three of the injured died while being taken to the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack.“Six people died on the spot while three others succumbed to their injuries while being shifted to hospital,” district Superintendent of Police Rabi Narayan Behera said.
The deceased included laxmi Patra (50), Gurubari Bindhani (62), laxmi Das (46), Minati Nayak (55), Jhunu Singh (15), Duni Singh (10), Sambhu Paramanik (22) and van driver Sambhu Paramanik.While the deceased belonged to Gandhipalli village under the Chauliaganj police limits in Cuttack, the driver was the native of Damodarpur under the Kandarpur police station.
The Kendrapada Sadar police seized the truck while its driver managed to flee from the spot.Meanwhile, Derabish Tehsildar Sumitra Patnaik announced to provide a sum of Rs 10,000 to the next kin of each deceased from the District Red Cross fund.