Three wedding guests and the SUV driver died near Mongpong of Kalimpong while on their way back to Siliguri with the newlyweds from the Dooars early on Saturday when the vehicle fell off a bridge and landed on dry riverbed.
Sources said that groom Rajesh Ekka of Champasari in Siliguri, who got married to a girl in Banarhat of Jalpaiguri on Saturday, was returning home with eight guests and the driver in an SUV when the accident occurred around 1.30am.
On reaching Rungdung bridge, a bridge over a stream a few kilometres away from the Coronation Bridge of Sevoke, the driver of the SUV lost control. The SUV rammed into the parapet wall of the bridge and fell into the dry bed of the stream.
A team from Mongpong police outpost and ambulances from Odlabari rural hospital reached the spot. All 11 occupants of the SUV were rushed to the rural hospital where doctors pronounced two of them brought dead.
The doctors referred others to Siliguri and two others died on the way. The remaining seven, including the groom and the bride, are under treatment at different private clinics.
The deceased, sources said, are Tilak Mondal, 34, Sushanta Jaydhar, 38, both of whom are from South 24-Parganas, Shukla Kundu, 57, of Milan More and SUV driver Sahil Sheikh, 23, of Pradhannagar, both located in Siliguri.
“Based on preliminary probe, it seems the vehicle was speeding and almost flew over the concrete parapet and fell down,” said Aparajita Rai, the Kalimpong SP.