The stretch of the Marine drive where a plus-two student of KSMS was killed in an accident. Picture by Uma Shankar Dubey

Jamshedpur, Nov 26: It was supposed to be one the most happening day in Sumeet Bedi’s life. Not only was he to join engineering coaching classes, a day of sun-dappled delight waited for him after school. The annual sports day promised to be a perfect treat.

But fate had something else in store for him. The 17-year-old plus-two student of Kerala Samajam Model School was crushed to death by a speeding truck on the Marine Drive at 7 am.

Up early, it was Sumeet’s first day to a special tuition to prepare for the joint entrance examinations next year.

Barely had he gone a few kilometres from his house in Mango on his bicycle, when the slag-laden truck ran over him. He was killed on the spot.

Eyewitnesses claimed that the truck was coming from the Bhuiyadih-Sitaramdera road and hit the boy even though he was cycling down the corner of the road.

After knocking down Sumeet, the truck (BR16G-1536) sped towards Sonari. The body lay on the road till his uncle, who was coming the same way, spotted him, picked him up and rushed to the Tata Main Hospital where doctors pronounced him “brought dead”.

His uncle, Mahendra Bedi, was on his way to Sakchi on an autorickshaw to catch his company bus to Tata Power. “I came out of the house 10 minutes after Sumeet left. While crossing the Court road, I spotted a youth lying on the road with his school bag thrown some distance away. The school bag made me suspicious that it could be my nephew and my worst fears came true,” he said.

Sumeet’s younger uncle Gurdeep Bedi said the youth wanted to be an engineer. “I do not where exactly the coaching centre is located, but it is somewhere near Garamnullah. Sumeet was to begin his coaching classes from today. Sumeet was a talented student and would have definitely realised his dream. But that was not to be,” he rued.

Sumeet was the only son of a city-based businessman, Harender Bedi.

“I had never imagined that I would lose my only son. This morning Sumeet seemed so happy. He told me that he would go to the JRD Sports Complex to take part in his school’s annual spots day after his coaching classes. And, I was happy that my boy was becoming busier by the day, but now he is gone for ever,” said his father.

On receiving the news, a pall of gloom descended on the KMSM school.

Authorities, who were preparing for the sports day, immediately postponed it and everyone rushed to Tata Main Hospital. “Sumeet was a very nice boy. He was obedient as well as intelligent. The school had lot of expectation from him. We cancelled the sports day and held a condolence meeting at the JRD Complex ground instead,” said vice-principal of KSMS V.M. Shundermani.