Derabish: Two bikers were crushed to death under an oil tanker after the speeding vehicle hit their motorcycle and dragged them a long distance at Alabanka Square on National Highway-53 under this police limits in Kendrapara district, Thursday. The deceased were identified as Bhabani Shankar Mohapatra, 40, of Pankapal village under Kujang police limits in Jagatsinghpur district and his brother-in-law Ajay Das, 36, of Bijaynagar village under Chandbali police limits in Bhadrak district. The mishap occurred when the two were returning home after attending a function at their in-laws’ house at Haribhaktapur village under Mahanga police limits in neighbouring Jajpur district. The speeding tanker dragged the two for quite a long distance killing them on the spot. Tension ran high as locals staged a road blockade at the accident site before informing the police. As a result, hundreds of vehicles were stranded on both sides of the highway.
Locals alleged that the mishap occurred due to creation of a narrow diversion road on the highway for plying of vehicles as a consultancy agency is building overbridges at various points along the highway as part of road expansion works. Vehicles are dangerously plying on the diversion route leading to frequent mishaps, they said. Derabish tehsildar Pragyan Parimita Prusty, Kendrapara SDPO Debendra Kumar Mallick, Derabish IIC Kishore Chandra Tarai and his Kendrapara Sadar counterpart Saroj Kumar Sahu rushed to the spot and pacified the agitators by holding talks. The tehsildar also gave away Rs 20,000 each to kin of both the deceased from the district Red Cross funds.