Six labourers, including children, were killed and over a dozen others were seriously injured when a truck overturned on them on Etawah road near Maukhas village under Bhognipur Kotwali police station in Kanpur Dehat late Monday night.
On getting information about the mishap, the police rushed there and sent the injured to Pukhrayan community health centre from where eight seriously injured labourers were referred to the district hospital.
According to reports, hundreds of labourers from different villages of Kanpur Dehat go to Etawah, Firozabad, Mainpuri and Kannauj every year to harvest the potato crop. This year too, on being called by the potato growers, many labourers of Kalauli Tir village of Hamirpur in Kanpur Dehat and Barnao village of Ghatampur (Kanpur Nagar) along with families and the labour contractor were going to Sirsaganj in Firozabad on Monday. On reaching Bhognipur crossing in the night, they boarded a truck laden with coal for Sirsaganj. While a few of them sat in the driver's cabin, the remaining male labourers sat over the coal. When the truck was near Maukhas village on Etawah national highway, it suddenly overturned and the labourers were trapped under it.
On hearing screams, the local residents rushed to the spot and carried out a rescue operation. Meanwhile, cops from Bhognipur Kotwali also reached there and sent the injured to the Pukhrayan CHC where six of them, including children, were pronounced dead. Of the remaining 15 labourers, eight were seriously injured and they were referred to the district hospital.
Superintendent of Police Keshav Kumar visited the hospital and took stock of the situation.
The deceased included Ramesh (41), Pinki (45), Chandrawati (14) of Barnao of Ghatampur, and Radha (42), her daughter Komal (8) and son Suraj (4) of Kalauli Tir village of Hamirpur.
The labourers injured seriously were identified as Sajan, Rajjan Devi, Sumitra, Vimla, Shivlal, Lalaram, Surendra and Shikha.
The injured said the truck's driver Jai Prakash, a native of Aligarh, was inebriated and was driving the truck at high speed. They said despite their repeated requests to slow down the truck, he refused to heed to their advice and suddenly lost control over the wheel and the truck overturned.
Jai Prakash was also injured and was admitted to the community health centre.