Seven of a family including three children, were killed in a horrific road accident on National Highway II, more popularly known as Durgapur Expressway near Burdwan on Wednesday.
The accident occurred when the driver of the SUV — an officer of the Railway Protection Force who was travelling from Howrah to his native village in Bihar tried to overtake a molten tar — laden tanker from the left side.
While giving a pass the tanker swerved to its right and hit the divider and overturned while smashing under it the small vehicle, locals who vainly tried to rescue the trapped passengers for more than two hours said.
“We saw the small children crying for life but we were helpless as the tanker was too heavy for us to be removed. It could be removed by a big crane which came after more than an hour but by then the children had literally melted to death,” said a local adding “many of the villagers even waved hand fans violently to five some relief to the trapped victims inside. It was heart rending to helplessly watch small children crying for life.”
The accident occurred near Rathtala-Tejpur in Burdwan district, police said. The car belonged to Rajan Kumar an Inspector of the RPF. His father a Deputy Security Commissioner of the RPF was driving the car to Bhojpur their ancestral village, sources said.
The seven passengers of the car were taken to the Burdwan Medical College Hospital where they were declared “brought dead.” The deceased have been identified as Rajan Kumar, Reshmi Singh, Seshnath Singh, Nirmala Singh, Anwesha Singh, Arnab Singh and Riya Singh, police said adding they were all the residents of Gulmohur area in the Railway Colony of Howrah.
A part of the Golden Quadrilateral, the NH-II linking Kolkata to Delhi and Chennai on two sides has recently turned into a “road of death” as the locals say with no set lane-rules for the tankers or big carriers.