A sub-inspector of police and a home guard were killed and three others seriously injured when a speeding goods vehicle hit a stationary police patrol vehicle on NH-16, near Bagnan in Howrah, early on Thursday.
Sub-inspector Sujay Das and home guard Palash Samanta died on the spot, while three others — the patrol van’s driver and two constables — were injured.
The police said the patrol team from Bagnan police station was on night duty at Barunda on Mumbai Road on Wednesday night and was waiting to move to the next location when the truck hit the vehicle and sped away.
The truck was headed towards Bagnan from Kolaghat and the police van was on the Kolkata-bound flank of Mumbai Road, officers said. Around 3am, the vehicle hit the rear of the stationary patrol van, parked on one side of the highway.
Witnesses said the police vehicle darted several metres down the road after being hit and some of the victims were flung on the road.
“When some of us reached the site, we saw three policemen lying on the road, unable to move. Two others lay dead,” said Arjya Sau, a Bagnan resident. “We helped cops from the local Bagnan police station shift the injured to a hospital in Uluberia.”
The hit-and-run comes a day after protests by truck drivers forced the Centre to announce that the protesters would be consulted before any decision was taken on the implementation of a stringent new law against truck and tanker drivers who do not report an accident.
Section 106 (2) of the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita states that whoever causes the death of any person by rash and negligent driving of a vehicle not amounting to culpable homicide, and escapes without reporting it to a
police officer or a magistrate soon after the incident, shall be punished with imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine.
Several motorists said they often return to Kolkata from work down the same stretch late at night and Thursday’s accident left them terrified.
“Sometimes we drive down to Kolaghat for dinner and return to Kolkata late at night. We also have to take this stretch while returning home from office assignments. It’s terrifying,” said Subir Basu Mullick, a senior engineer with a private company in Kolkata.
Soon after the incident, senior police officers visited the spot. The family members of the deceased were informed about the tragedy.
“Two police personnel have died and three have been injured. The three have been shifted to SSKM Hospital. We are collecting details of the driver and the offending vehicle,” said S.N. Gupta, additional director general of
police in charge of south
Bengal.
A case of rash and negligent driving and murder has been drawn up at the local police station and officers said they were scanning footage of CCTV cameras to identify the offending vehicle.