Uttarpara/Howrah, April 7: A matador van carrying workers to the Tata Motors plant in Singur overturned while trying to race past a truck in Bally, Howrah, this morning.

Twenty-five people were injured. The condition of two was said to be serious. They were taken to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital.

Police said 15 were admitted to the Uttarpara State General Hospital and the rest released after first aid.

“The driver of the matador managed to escape. We are trying to trace him,” said Howrah superintendent of police Niraj Kumar Singh.

The van carrying labourers on contract at the Tata project site was speeding through National Highway 2 when it overturned around 8.30am.

“The driver misjudged a bend probably because the truck was obstructing his vision. The matador swerved into a field and turned turtle,” said a police officer.

Hearing the crash and screams of help, local residents rushed to the spot. “The men had been thrown off the vehicle and were lying on the field. We stopped vehicles to take them to hospital. The nearest was the one at Uttarpara,” said Pradip Sengupta, a medicine wholesaler.

Rasamoy Barkandaj, 42, who received four stitches on his lips, spoke with difficulty from his hospital bed. “We are masons and started from Baguiati at 6am,” he said.

“We were travelling at great speed and our driver would not let the truck go past. At one point, the truck overtook us and our driver was trying to beat it again. Suddenly I felt a jerk and darkness descended.”

Three days ago, a bus in Calcutta had sunk in a canal, killing 20 people, while trying to overtake an auto.

Today’s is the third incident involving workers at the Tata site in the past 10 days.

On April 3, Shyamsundar Bhattacharya, 42, and Manik Pal, 24, were killed when they slipped and fell from a height of 50 feet from the roof structure of a shed at the project site.

On March 28, the body of dumper driver Rajkumar Biswakarma, 24, was found with his head crushed.