A family’s vacation trip to Bankura’s Bishnupur turned into a nightmare when a pile-up on the Vidyasagar Setu while waiting in a queue at the toll plaza killed one of them in the car and left four others injured early on Saturday.

The pile-up involving five vehicles was triggered by a container-laden truck that first hit a lorry and then another container truck, forcing the latter to hit an app cab that was hired by the family. The cab, a Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, in turn, rammed into a Force Traveller, critically injuring one of the occupants of the cab, who later died in hospital.

All the vehicles were heading towards Howrah and were waiting for their turn to pay the toll when the accident happened around 5.20am.

Police said Harisadhan Kar, 64, a retired government employee and a resident of Sree Colony in Netaji Nagar, was going to Bankura with his wife Rupali, 50, daughter Swarna Mali, 21, brother-in-law Mani Mohan Roy, 57, and his wife Radha Rani, 50, in the hired cab.

All of them were taken to SSKM hospital where Kar was declared dead. The others were treated and discharged. The app cab driver was treated and discharged from a private hospital in Beleghata.

“The deceased person had undergone a heart surgery three months ago. There were no external injury marks on him,” said a traffic officer.

There were no occupants in the Force Traveller or more people could have been injured, the police said.

The driver of the first container-laden truck has been arrested and charged with causing death due to negligence, rash and negligent driving, mischief and causing grievous hurt to others by a rash and negligent act endangering safety of human life.

An officer of the traffic department said the driver of the offending vehicle has claimed that the truck’s brake had failed and that it was not his fault but a mechanical error that triggered the accident.