March 22: A seven-member family on their first highway trip in their new Ciaz was wiped out today when a speeding tanker filled with molten pitch fell sideways on the car while overtaking, trapping the passengers in a hell of mangled metal, acrid smoke and scalding tar.

The tragic outcome of the accident on NH 2, on the outskirts of Burdwan town, was amplified by a six-year-old boy's cry of "Uncle, bachao...bachao (help, help)" before life ebbed out of his little body.

Araav Singh was in the car with his father, Railway Protection Force (RPF) inspector Rajen Kumar Singh, 42, mother Reshmi, 33, sisters Riya, 13, and Anwesha, 8, and grandparents Sisnath and Nirmala.

"The boy was crying out to me for help and I could not do anything for him. He was trapped so badly that we could not bring him out sooner. We used a hand fan to soothe him and offered him water but he died in front of our eyes," recounted Papon Mitra, a local youth who saw the accident happen around 9.45am.

Papon said the tanker was trying to honk the car out of its way and overtake through the narrow space on the right when the driver lost control and hit the road divider. It toppled over on impact, crushing the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and its passengers under the weight of its metal and hundreds of gallons of hot pitch. The driver and his help fled.

Rescuers could not reach the victims immediately because of the thick, black smoke and the hot pitch that spilled out of the tanker onto the car and the road. Most of the passengers had severe burns besides trauma injuries.

Almost an hour went by before a crane arrived to lift the tanker off the car. A fire engine had sprayed water on the smouldering metal before that so that rescuers could at least find out if there were any survivors. Araav was alive then but could not be saved, the police said.

The victims were declared "brought dead" on arrival at Burdwan Medical College and Hospital.

Doctors at the hospital said it could not be immediately ascertained whether the victims died instantly or because of the burn injuries caused by the molten pitch that flowed into the car mostly through the shattered windshield. "The victims were scalded by the hot liquid. They also received multiple injuries. They were trapped in the car for around an hour; so the actual cause of death would be known only after post mortem on the bodies," said an official at the hospital.

The police came to know that Rajen was an RPF inspector from his identity card and driving licence, which they found in his pocket. An RPF team from Howrah arrived at Burdwan Medical College to identify the bodies.

"Rajen's brother, who is in Delhi, has been informed about the accident," Burdwan's additional superintendent of police Dyutiman Bhattacharya told Metro.

Rajen and his family were going to their ancestral house in Patna when the accident occurred. They had left their RPF quarters at Gulmohar Railway Colony in Golabari, Howrah, around 7.30am.

Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in Durgapur said trucks and tankers were not supposed to ply on the right lane of any highway. This lane is reserved for small cars and buses, a rule that few know about, much less follow.

"Heavy vehicles are supposed to use the slow lane, which is the left side of the carriageway on any highway. Most trucks and tankers frequently break this rule in the absence of proper vigilance," a NHAI official said.

The police have promised to intensify patrolling to check speeding and other violations by heavy vehicles, a malaise common to every other highway in Bengal. "We are already in the middle of a crackdown on rash driving. We will further intensify it," the additional SP said.

The Kona Expressway that connects Calcutta with NH6 is another stretch that has witnessed many road deaths caused by rash driving.

Speeding may be common on highways, but what makes those in Bengal even more dangerous is poor surveillance. On the Kona Expressway, most accidents are caused by road-hog trucks and tankers forcing smaller vehicles to change lanes frequently at high speed.