Purulia (WB) | Nine people were killed in a head-on collision between a car and a truck on National Highway 18 in West Bengal's Purulia district on Friday morning, police said.
The accident took place around 6.30 am near Namshol village under the Balarampur police station limits, an officer said.
"The head-on collision occurred between a Bolero SUV and a truck on the highway, resulting in the deaths of all nine occupants of the four-wheeler," Balarampur Police Station in-charge Soumyadeep Mallick told PTI.
According to police sources, the victims were returning from a wedding ceremony.
They were travelling from Adabana village under the Barabazar police station jurisdiction in Purulia to Tilaitand in the Nimdih police station area of neighbouring Jharkhand, when the accident occurred.
The impact of the collision was so severe that the SUV was mangled. Locals and emergency responders rushed to the spot and took the victims to a nearby primary health centre, where doctors declared all of them dead, the police said.
Preliminary investigations suggest overspeeding and possible negligence as contributing factors to the accident, he said.
A case has been registered and further investigation is underway, the police added.
Referring to the tragedy and another collision involving a passenger-filled bus and a truck which took place in Bagnan, Howrah on Thursday, where at least three people died and about 26 were injured, state Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari questioned the road safety standards in Bengal.
Taking to X, Adhikari wrote, “The loss of precious lives in these incidents is deeply painful, and I extend my heartfelt condolences to the grieving families. I pray for the speedy recovery of those injured and currently undergoing treatment." He also alleged that these back-to-back tragedies "expose the alarming deterioration of road safety standards in West Bengal under the supervision of the West Bengal Police, which falls directly under the purview of Home Minister Smt. Mamata Banerjee".
"The rising number of fatal accidents on the roads of WB reflects a systemic failure in traffic management and enforcement of safety regulations," he said.
Adhikari also took the opportunity to take a dig at the chief minister, who criticised air safety standards in the country in the wake of the Ahmedabad Air India crash.
“While I appreciate that our Hon'ble Chief Minister Smt. Mamata Banerjee has turned on her focus on air travel safety issues and expressing her 'expert' opinion almost every day since the Ahmedabad air crash, I urge her to shift some of that attention to the dire state of road safety in our state,” Adhikari continued in his post on X handle.
The BJP leader claimed that countless lives are being lost on West Bengal's roads daily due to "poor traffic management, inadequate road infrastructure, and lax enforcement".
"It's high time the state government prioritises improving road safety standards to prevent such heart-wrenching tragedies,” he added.