Five people were killed after a Maruti Suzuki Eeco van collided head-on with a truck in Assam’s Sonitpur district late Friday night, police said.
The accident took place at around 11:30 pm in the Balipara area on National Highway 15. The van was travelling from Tezpur towards Rangapara when it collided with the truck coming from the opposite direction.
Police said all five people travelling in the van sustained critical injuries. They were rushed to a nearby government hospital, where two were declared dead on arrival. The remaining three succumbed to their injuries while undergoing treatment.
The deceased have been identified as Harobinda Hazoary, 38, Pranjal Bania, 39, Sanjay Mech, 39, Papu Borah, 45, and Nayan Swargiary, 45. All five were residents of Batabari.
According to the initial investigation, the Eeco may have lost control and crossed into the opposite lane before crashing into the truck. Police are still investigating the exact cause of the collision.
The truck driver remains untraced following the accident. Authorities have taken both vehicles into custody as part of the investigation.
Local residents who witnessed the crash said both vehicles appeared to be travelling at high speed. The impact was reportedly so severe that the sound of the collision could be heard from nearby houses.
Police sent the bodies to Sonitpur Civil Hospital for postmortem examination.
The accident has once again highlighted concerns over road safety in Assam. The state government has been taking measures to reduce road fatalities, and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has previously said that deaths from road accidents have declined in recent years.
However, road crashes continue to claim hundreds of lives across the state. According to state government figures cited in the report, nearly 4,000 road accidents have been recorded in Assam so far this year.
Authorities are now investigating the circumstances that led to the fatal collision, including the possibility of loss of control and speeding.
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