Two tourists were killed when their car crashed into a stationary truck near Contai in East Midnapore on Tuesday.

The accident led to a severe traffic disruption on 116B national highway and police had to block vehicles for over an hour to clear the site of the mishap.

According to police sources, the deceased persons are Shubhajit Mukherjee (30) and Ranajit Koley (28), both residents of Howrah’s Andul.

One of the duo was driving the car to Digha when the speeding vehicle smashed into a truck standing on the side of the highway, about 35km before their destination. The accident took place around 9.30am on the Digha-Nandakumar road, also known as the 116B national highway.

Sources at the Marishdaha police station said primary investigations revealed that the car was travelling at a dangerously high speed and crashed into the truck as it failed to slow down. Both the vehicles were removed from the spot and taken to the police station.

“The road was quite slippery since it had rained all night. A bus came from the opposite direction and the driver of the car tried to save itself. Since the car was already going at a high speed, it lost control and smashed into the truck parked beside the road,” eyewitness Dhananjoy Das said.

“Every vehicle that crosses this road, be it a tourist car or a public bus, travels at a very high speed. The police have taken no steps to mend things. This is why Marishdaha has become an accident-prone zone,” Das said.

In July this year, a vehicle in the convoy of the leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari had met with an accident at Marishdaha. The vehicle had been severely damaged.

Local people were the first to reach the spot the accident on Tuesday morning. Later, the police led by Marishdaha officer in-charge Soumen Guha reached the spot and carried the two persons to the Contai hospital where they were declared dead.

“We are trying to figure out what led to this accident. The road has been cleared for movement of vehicles,” Guha said.