Three killed in accident on GT Road in Haryana

Three people have been killed in an accident involving three vehicles on the GT Road here, police said today.

Two heavy vehicles and a car were involved in the accident last night near a flyover in Umri village, about 8 km from here, they said.

The accident caused the two heavy vehicles to catch fire, in which the drivers were burnt to death, investigating officer ASI Bhupinder Singh said.

The third victim was the driver of a car that was also involved in the accident, he said.

Two fire tenders were pressed into service to control the fire. Traffic was adversely affected for over three hours due to this, ASI Singh said.

According to police, the accident occurred at about 9.45 pm last night when driver Rajbir Singh (28) lost control of his truck in an attempt to avoid hitting a stray cow on the GT road.

The Delhi-bound truck, carrying liquor, jumped the divider and collided head-on with another truck, loaded with coal, coming from the opposite direction, they said.

Both the vehicles overturned after the collision and caught fire. In the meantime, a car, driven by businessman Gautam Garg (42), lost control and collided with one the trucks, officials said.

Both truck-drivers, Sher Singh (52) of Kachhawa (Panipat) and Rajbir Singh of Uttarkashi, were charred to death, and Garg, from Mahesh Nagar Ambala cantonment, died of injuries sustained in the crash, the ASI said.

Amit Gulati of Ambala, who was in the car, and Mehar Singh of Gharaunda (Karnal), who was in one of the trucks, were seriously injured, he added.

The ASI said the dead bodies were handed over to the families after postmortem examinations today.

Meanwhile, Ashok Arora, president of the Haryana unit of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), alleged that such accidents were happening quite often as the government had failed to control stray animals roaming on the roads.