A mechanic out on a “trial run” with a police jeep was killed when it collided with a truck on Barrackpore Expressway early on Monday. A sub-inspector and two constables of Nimta police station were injured in the mishap.

“I heard a loud sound around 3am and came out of my house to see that the police jeep had overturned after being hit by a truck,” said Asim Maity, a resident of Durganagar.

According to local residents, police jeeps often hide by the side of the expressway and suddenly come out to intercept trucks to extort money from their drivers.

The police, however, claimed that Dipak Sil, 42, had taken the jeep out for a trial run after repairing it. “The vehicles were at right angles. The jeep was trying to get on the road, while the truck was coming down a slope. The truck driver lost control of the vehicle. Sil, being a mechanic and not an experienced driver, couldn’t steer the vehicle to safety,” said an officer of Nimta police station.

He failed to explain, why the mechanic, a resident of Ashutosh Pally in Nimta, had taken the jeep for a trial run before dawn.