Nuapada: Ten people including four women were killed in Nuapada district early Wednesday when the car they were travelling in collided head-on with a truck, a senior police official said.
The victims, members of five families, were on their way home to Sankara village in Chhattisgarh after offering prayers at the Vaishno Devi temple in Komna of the district when the accident occurred near Silada on NH-353 around 2.30 am, Nuapada Superintendent of Police Smit P Parmar said.
The impact of the collision was so severe that all 10 persons on board the vehicle, including four women and the driver, died on the spot, he said.
The deceased have been identified as Dinesh Dandsena (55), Chandani Dandsena (45), Bharati Dandsena (17), Dhananjay Dandsena (15), Meghanad Nisa (42), Ghanshyam Netam (29), Dileswar Netam (25), Meena Neetam (12), Surajit Singh Chawada (45) and Mukesh Agarwal (32).
On the occasion of Navaratri, the family had come to Vaishno Devi temple. They offered prayers and were returning home when the incident occurred. While nine of them died on the spot, Bharati was rescued in critical condition and admitted to Nuapada district headquarters hospital (DHH). However, she succumbed to the injuries during treatment.
Fearing police arrest, the truck driver, however, abandoned his vehicle and fled the spot.
“After getting information, police and fire brigade personnel rushed to the site and pulled the bodies out of the mangled vehicle,” the SP said.
The bodies have been handed over to the family members after post-mortem, he said. Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh’s Bagbahara tehsildar provided compensation of Rs 25,000 each for the bereaved families, it was learnt.
Notably, two persons had been killed while more than 20 others were left with serious injuries after a bus carrying around 60 pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh to Puri Srimandir hit a bamboo-laden truck at Charampa area in Bhadrak district a week back.
PNN
