Six people, including a woman and a minor girl, were killed and 10 others were injured when an SUV collided head-on with a truck in Surajpur district on Monday afternoon, police said.
“The accident happened at Pendari Ghat under Chandera police station limits when 15 people were going to Kudargarh temple in Surajpur in an SUV,” Superintendent of Police Surajpur GS Jaiswal said.
According to the SP, the collision happened around 7 km from the police station between 1:00 and 1:30 am when the truck coming from the opposite direction lost control on wheels and rammed the SUV.
The collision was so intense that five people including the truck driver died on the spot. Some kind of malfunctioning in the gear box caused the truck driver to lose control on the truck, the SP added.
After getting the information, a police team rushed to the spot and shifted the victims to a local hospital where a woman succumbed to her injuries, the SP said.
The deceased were identified as Ratu Bhuiya (45), Dhyan Ram Bhuiya (50), Reshma (12), Andulna (45), SUV's driver Pannalal Kushwaha (32), all natives of Balrampur district, and truck driver Shanshah Ahmed (32), a native of Sonbhadra district in Uttar Pradesh, the official said. The injured were later shifted to Ambikapur district for better treatment, he informed. Meanwhile, police has registered a case in this connection.