Dense fog, that engulfed this part of the region, on Friday led to death of 12 teachers, including five women, and the driver after their vehicle rammed into a truck in Fazilka. Four of them were reportedly going to join their duties.
The police claimed that the collision took place between the vehicle they were travelling in and a truck coming from opposite direction over dense fog near Chandipur village in Fazilka district on Fazilka-Jalalabad road in the morning at the time when the teachers were on their way to duty.
“When their jeep tried to overtake a vehicle, it collided head on with a truck coming from the opposite direction…The cause of mishap was poor visibility due to dense fog,” said the police.
The van was hired for daily transportation by the teachers deployed in different government schools of Fazilka district.
Two of the teachers were said to be seriously injured.
The teachers who were killed were identified as Sanjiv Bagla, Shankar lal, Manohar lal, Ram Pal, Satinderjit Singh, Ashish, Nazam, Sanjeev Kumar, Bindia, Tejinder Kaur, Shetal Kakkar, Natasha and Kiran Bala, as all of them belonging to Fazilka and Abohar.
The bodies of the deceased were kept at Civil Hospital in Fazilka, most of whom were newly appointed ETT teachers.
Out of the newly appointed teachers, four teachers were to join duty today. Of the thirteen dead, six died on the spot and others succumbed to the injuries the hospital, while the seriously injured teacher, Gopi Chand, was taken to a hospital at Abohar. The senior officials of the district administration were at the spot.
The markets in this border town of Fazilka remained closed to show solidarity with the bereaved families.
Senior leaders including Punjab Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jayani, Congress MlA Sunil Jakhar and Akali Dal MP Sher Singh Ghubaya reached the local civil hospital. Punjab Education Minister Daljeet Singh Cheema also rushed to Fazilka as soon the news reached.
Cheema met the bereaved families, and even attended the cremation ceremonies of some teachers.
Education Minister has also issued directions to the Director Public Instructions (Senior Secondary) for holding within seven days a camp in Fazilka to provide compassionate appointments to the kin of the victims.
Fazilka Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Narinder Bhargav said that the investigation of the accident is underway.