A young father from Jamshedpur and two others were killed on the spot when his SUV collided head-on with a rice truck on NH-33, near Ranchi, early on Christmas.

Sandeep Singh (30), who owns a mobile phone store at Niranjan Singh Complex in Ulidih, Mango, was on a business trip when tragedy struck. He is survived by his 26-year-old widow and year-old daughter. The two others have been identified as Sandeep's friend Ravi Shankar Verma (27) and employee Gandhi Mallik (26), also residents of Ulidih.

Sources in police said the accident took place at Janchua in Namkum thana area, very close to the state capital and 110km from the steel city, around 1am on Friday.

According to Sandeep's elder brother Nishant Singh, the trio left Mango around 9pm on Thursday. "My brother had a meeting with executives of a cellphone company in Ranchi in the morning," he said.

Four hours later, the speeding rice truck rammed into the SUV, turning it into metal pulp. The trucker fled the scene.

Namkum OC Anil Kumar confirmed that the heavy vehicle was in top gear. "It was a head-on collision. The three people inside the SUV had no chance at all. We retrieved the bodies and sent them to RIMS for post-mortem," the officer said, adding that a case had been registered against the unidentified truck driver.

Nishant said the bodies would be brought to Jamshedpur by Friday night. "They will be kept at MGM mortuary in Dimna and the last rites will be performed on Saturday," the bereaved brother added.

A pall of gloom descended on Ulidih, where the three young men lived. "I spoke to Ravi just last (Thursday) evening. He told me he and Sandeep were going to Ranchi on business. It is shocking that they are no more," said Sudhanshu Sinha, a local resident.