Five persons killed in dumper-car collision

Five persons were killed this morning when their car collided with a dumper coming from the opposite direction on Mehsana-Radhanpur highway in North Gujarat's Patan district, police said.
"The accident took place on Mehsana-Radhanpur highway near Harij Dairy between a dumper and a car. Five persons in the car, along with the driver, died on the spot," a Harij police official said.
Patan is 125 km north of Ahmedabad.
Four of the deceased were employees of a private catering company, police said, adding that they were on their way to prepare food for a marriage party nearby.
"The driver of the dumper fled after the mishap. We are tracing him. The vehicles were coming from opposite direction and collided with each other," Harij police sub inspector M S Suthar, who is investigating the accident case, said.

Police identified the deceased driver as Prakash Solanki and the four employees of the private catering company as - Shantilal Balsar of Valsad district, Asif Gamit (Songadh taluka in Tapi district), Nipen Sunil (Murshidabad in West Bengal) and Ravindra Rawat, hailing from Uttarakhand but currently residing in Ahmedabad.

The deceased were in the age category of 30-32 years, police said.
A complaint regarding the accident was lodged by Nawab Patauddin Mohammed, the manager of the private catering company.
"We have called Regional Transport Office (RTO) officials for inspection of the damaged vehicles as to who applied brakes first. Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) will also check the dumper to see whether the driver was carrying any drugs or not. Investigation, currently, is at a preliminary level and it is difficult to tell whose fault is it at this stage," Suthar added.