9 daily-wage earners killed as truck ram into passenger van

By Satchindananda Behera

Bhubaneswar, April 24: At least nine persons were on Thursday killed and as many others injured, some of them seriously, - when a van carrying them collided head-on with a truck at Chandol police outpost chowk in Odisha’s Kendrapara district, nearly 60 km from here, on the Cuttack-Chandbali state highway.

Those killed were poor daily wagers and five of them were women. They hailed from Gandhipalli locality on the outskirts of Cuttack city.

The victims were members of a marriage light decoration party.

 The ill-fated van coming from Kendrapara early in the morning met with the accident with the truck which was coming from opposite direction.

Kendrapara superintendent of police Rabi Narayan Behera said six persons died on the spot while three others succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital.

The 11 others were rushed to the SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack.

 The van that met with the mishap was carrying about 18 persons.

Of the nine injured, the condition of the three injured was stated to be critical.

Reports said a group of labourers from the Gandhinagar slum near Mahanadi Vihar in Cuttack had gone to Kendrapara to carry decorative lights on their heads in a marriage procession.

After doing their job, they were on the way back to Cuttack in two Tata Magic vans.

On the way, a truck coming from the opposite direction, suddenly lost balance after one of its front tyres suddenly burst and collided head-on with the Tata Magic van, killing six labourers and driver on the spot.

Three others with grievous injuries died on their way to hospital.