SPEEDING TO BLAME, SAY POLICE OFFICERS 

Panagarh, March 26: Eight cousins returning from a fair were killed on a Burdwan highway early this morning when the Omni they were travelling in collided with a truck.

Police sources said the driver of the Omni could have either dozed off after hours at the wheel at night or failed to slam the brakes in time when the truck suddenly appeared in front of the car after it overtook another vehicle.

Today's accident on the Panagarh-Moregram highway in Kanksa is the fourth road crash in as many days in Burdwan in which 19 persons have been killed in total (see chart).

Police officers said speeding was one of the major reasons behind the accidents over the past few days and advocated the need for a limit on all highways in the district.

The youths killed today were identified as Jakir Sheikh, 35, Jane Sheikh, 26, Marfat Sheikh, 26, Alimuddin Sheikh, 28, Sukho Sheikh, 22, Syed Sheikh, 29, Saidul Sheikh, 28, and the Omni driver, Abdul Sheikh, 30.

Another youth Ketab Ali Sheikh, 28, who was also travelling in the Omni, has been admitted to Burdwan Medical College and Hospital with critical injuries.

The cousins, all residents of Samudragarh in Burdwan's Kalna, had hired the Omni to visit a fair in Birbhum's Suri last week. They were returning home when the accident occurred around 3am.

The nine were part of a bigger group that had gone to the fair from Samudragarh.

"My nephew Syed had accompanied his cousins. I had specifically told him to avoid travelling at night," sobbed Julu Hazi Sheikh, who came to Durgapur subdivisional hospital to collect Syed's body.

Police sources said the driver could have dozed off.

"He had been driving continuously for three hours at night. There is a high possibility that he might have been sleepy and lost control of the vehicle," the officer said.

Another officer laid stress on a second possibility.

"The Omni driver may not have been able to gauge the speed at which the truck was coming from the Opposite direction. He had overtaken a car and found the truck dead ahead," he said.

The truck overturned on the state highway after the accident and the Omni was reduced to a mangled mass of metal. The driver and the cleaner of the truck fled.

The police initially rushed the victims to Durgapur subdivisional hospital, where seven youths were declared dead on arrival. Two others were referred to BMCH, where Jane Sheikh died this afternoon.

The inspector-general of police (traffic), Manoj Verma, visited the accident spot in Kanksa this afternoon.

Sources said he had been instructed by the chief minister to visit the spots where accidents had taken place over the past four days.

Verma also visited the spot near Burdwan town where a seven-member family on their first highway trip in their new Ciaz was wiped out when a speeding tanker filled with pitch fell sideways on the car while overtaking on March 22.

The additional superintendent of police in Burdwan, Dyutiman Bhattacharya, said speeding was one of the major reasons for the recent accidents.

"We have decided to reduce the speed limit on NH2 and other highways in Burdwan," said Bhattacharya.

A police officer said the existing speed limit for light vehicles on any national highway was 100kmph. For heavy vehicles, the speed limit is 60kmph.