Five members of a family, including two children, from Hooghly and West Midnapore, and the driver on way to the Mahakumbh in Allahabad, were killed in a road accident when their car rear-ended a stationary truck on NH2, near Jharkhand’s Dhanbad, late on Friday.

Rahul Roy of Hooghly’s Goghat who narrowly survived the crash, said the SUV driver had probably dozed off.

“I can’t recall exactly what happened as we were all sleeping in the car after our dinner in Dhanbad. Suddenly, I felt the impact of our car hitting something,” said Roy. “Of the 11 travelling in our vehicle, six were killed, while others were seriously injured and hospitalised in Dhanbad.... I was the only one in the vehicle without a major injury,” he added.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday evening paid condolences to the deceased and said the state government will help the families to bring back dead bodies and ensure treatment ofthe injured.

“My condolences to the families of the six from our State, who died today in aroad accident in Jharkhandon way to Mahakumbh,” Mamata wrote on X on Saturday evening.

“I have instructed our administration to help the distressed families in bringing back the bodies and in providing medical and other support to the survivors,” she added.

A senior official in Calcutta said officials from Hooghly and West Midnapore had contacted the kin who went to Dhanbad to bring backthe bodies.

Those who died were Piyali Saha, 33, and her daughter Agamani, 5, both from Satberia village of Goghat in Hooghly; Pranab Saha, 42, his wife Shyamali, 35, and daughter Anwesha, 4, from Nalpa village of West Midnapore’s Garbeta, along with the car’s driver, Sheikh Razab Ali, 32, a resident of Goghat’s Badu area.

Piyali and Shyamali were sisters, and their husbands were farmers, said a police source. It was learnt that Piyali’s husband, Swaroop Saha, was critically injured in the accident. He is in the ICU of Shahid Nirmal Mahato Medical College and Hospitalin Dhanbad.

A police source said that the accident occurred near Rajganj, about 17km from Dhanbad, within half an hour of their dinner.

Since the Mahakumbh began on January 13, thousands from Bengal, including political leaders, have been going to the pilgrimage site. Earlier too, there were reports of a few deaths in road accidents en route.

The Mahakumbh became a political issue after the January 29 stampede in Allahabad.

While the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government stated the death toll was 30, several Opposition parties, including TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee, claimed the actual number was far higher. The TMC accused the BJP-led government of grossly underreportingthe deaths.

Referring to the stampede, Mamata in the Assembly recently referred to Mahakumbh as Mirtyukumbh (Kumbh of Deaths), prompting the saffron camp to lash out.

4 die in accident

At least four people, including a woman, were killed when a bus heading towards Calcutta with a wedding party lost control and crashed into a roadside tea shop on Basanti Highway in Minakhan, North 24-Parganas, on Saturday night. As the bus rammed into the shop, one of its walls collapsed, trapping those inside and killing three of them on the spot. The driver of the bus was also killed instantly. Some 22 persons, including passengers of the bus and tea stall customers, were injured.