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Thirty-five-year-old Jaivir Chandra missed life by 72 hours.
The small-time businessman from Bengal and a father of two was crushed to death — along with wife Kalpana Devi (32) and a neighbour — by a speeding bus on NH-23 in Bokaro on Tuesday afternoon, a tragedy that might not have happened had the couple chosen to travel on Saturday instead.
Relative Rampravesh Mahto said Kalpana’s parents, who live in Chitarpur in Ramgarh district, had invited their daughter and son-in-law on Saraswati Puja.
The couple, residents of a village in Purulia in the neighbouring state, however, chose to postpone the visit because their children — an 11-year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter — had a school function to attend.
Jaivir and Kalpana set out for Chitarpur on their bike in the afternoon. Neighbour Jainandan Mahto (28), a primary schoolteacher, also hitched a ride. They reached Petarwar Chowk on NH-23, 40km from Bokaro steel city, around 3pm when a private coach — carrying 40 passengers from Ranchi to Dhanbad — hit their two-wheeler head-on. The trio came under the wheels and died on the spot.
Police have seized the killer bus, but the driver, conductor and cleaner managed to flee after the incident.
The Ranchi-Dhanbad highway is a mishap magnet with no leash on speed demons. Last year, as many as 316 accidents took place in Bokaro district and most of them on NH-23. In January this year, as many as 11 people have died in accidents on the highway.
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