Nineteen people, including 12 women and three children were killed and six others were injured after a truck overturned, which they travelled at Bavliyari village near Dholera on Bhavnagar-Ahmedabad state highway, in Dhandhuka taluka of Ahmedabad in the wee hours on Saturday. This is second major road accident in the area in less than three months.
Police reported that after loading around 20 metric tonnes of cement from a cement factory in Rajula taluka of Amreli district, the truck was on its way to Dahej in Bharuch district. En route, the truck driver took on board 25 labourers from near Talaja in neighbouring Bhavnagar district who needed to go to Kheda in central Gujarat. However, the truck skidded off the highway just after entering Ahmedabad district and then overturned at Bavliyari village, around 40 km from Bhavnagar city at around 3 am. Twenty-four people who were sitting on bags of cement loaded in the truck were trapped in the mound of the bags as the truck fell upside down, police said. As many as 18 people were killed on the spot while one succumbed to his wounds in hospital, police further said.
“A police control room van which was doing patrolling around five kilometres away from the accident site rushed to the spot. Other truck drivers who had stopped after the accident also called an ambulance immediately. They could pull out six persons from the heap of cement bags and rushed them to Sir Takhtasinhji General Hospital in Bhavnagar. However, 18 others could not be rescued as they were trapped under the heap of cement bags and the overturned truck. We immediately rushed a crane and removed the truck and cement bags. By that time, all the 18 had died,” Dholera police sub-inspector Sanjaysinh Jadeja told.
Jadeja said that one of the seven injured died while undergoing treatment at the state government-run hospital in Bhavnagar city, around 40 km away from the accident site. “Primary investigation has revealed that a truck coming from the opposite direction tried to overtake another truck. This partially blocked the path of the ill-fated truck. To give way to the truck coming from the opposite direction, the driver of the truck carrying cement tried to steer on the edge of the road. However, the driver lost control and the truck which was fully loaded skidded off the road and eventually overturned,” Jadeja said.
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Police said the victims were residents of Sartanpar and Padari village of Talaja taluka of Bhavnagar district and Talaja town. “The victims belonged to two-three families. One of them who was sitting in the truck driver’s cabin has told us that they were going to Kheda for working as agricultural labourers and that they had boarded the truck from near Talaja,”.
The Section 184 of Motor Vehicles Act deals with dangerous driving while 177 provides for punishment for violation of provisions of the act. “The injured are being given medical treatment at the Bhavnagar hospital and doctors are telling us that their condition is out of danger,” added the PSI.
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