Driver ‘drunk’, 5 labourers killed,27 hurt in B’shahr truck collision | Meerut News
Meerut: Five persons, including two women and a 10-year-old boy, were killed and 27 others were injured when a truck ferrying them from Punjab to UP collided with another truck on the Anupshahr Road in Bulandshahr on Friday.Some of the injured claimed that the driver had stopped over at a roadside eatery and perhaps consumed alcohol while the driver before his death told the cops that he dozed off while driving.SP (rural) Tejveer Singh said the accident took place around 4am. He added: “36 people were travelling in a truck to Shahjahanpur when it collided with another moving truck. The injured were rushed to the district hospital. Three died while others are at Meerut hospital. An FIR will be filed. We’re also looking to arrest the other truck driver who fled. Prompt response by police and timely medical attention saved many lives.“SP Singh added: “The truck driver also died. Moments before his death, he told the cops that he dozed off while driving. His body has been sent for postmortem, which can confirm if he was drunk at the time of the incident.”Emergency medical officer at Meerut Medical College, Dr Diwakar Chaudhary said 27 people, many minors, were hospitalised. “Most of them sustained fractures in limbs and chest,” said Chaudhary.Those dead were truck driver Sunil Kumar (32) from Haryana, Ravi Kumar (25), ShivDai Devi (55), Krishna (10) and Nathia Devi (42) — all labourers from Shahjahanpur.Recounting the incident, Vijendra Kumar, 30, a Shahjahanpur resident, told TOI that he lost three family members, including his mother. He said, “Six members of my family went to Punjab eight months ago to work at a brick kiln. Since work ceased recently, we decided to leave… I had Rs 41,000 with me which my family had saved while working there. I lost my mother, sister-in-law, nephew and also the money in this accident.“Another daily-wager, Ramveer Singh, said, “We left Punjab on Thursday noon. The contractor arranged a truck for us. The driver stopped at a roadside ‘dhaba’ around midnight and took alcohol. We were asleep when the collision happened.”
