Six persons, including four college students, were killed and four others received injuries in two separate incidents in Bathinda and Hoshiarpur districts of Punjab on Tuesday. In Bathinda, four college students, including a woman, were injured after a car collided with a truck head-on near Lehra Bega toll plaza on the Rajpura national highway.
"There were four people present in the car—three boys and one girl—and all four have died. All four were college-going students... People who were at the spot said that the tire of the vehicle had burst, causing the head-on collision. We are still investigating whether the vehicle was on the wrong side or not," Deputy Superintendent of police (DSP) Bathinda, Sarabjit Singh said.
The deceased have been identified as Manpreet Singh, Jobanpreet Singh, Harman Singh, all residents of Mandi Kalan village in Bathinda, and Ramanpreet Kaur of Mehta village in Barnala, according to the Hindustan Times. Manpreet, Jobanpreet and Ramanpreet were students of the Government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Bathinda. Harman was a BA 2nd year student at Fateh Group of Institutions in Bathinda’s Rampura.
Also Read | Pune Road Accident: Auto Rickshaw Rams Into Divider, Driver Trapped in Crash.
The bodies of the victims were sent to the mortuary of the Shaheed Bhai Mani Singh Civil Hospital. Doctors said the victims had multiple injuries with critical damage to their heads. According to the eyewitness, the tyre of the car burst, after which the driver lost control of the vehicle, causing it to cross over to the opposite side of the busy highway.
In another accident, a car coming from Jammu was being driven at a high speed and hit the police post at Mansar. In the accident, the sub-inspector (ASI) was injured. According to the HT report, the driver was in an inebriated condition and had been booked for rash driving and causing death by negligence. The deceased have been identified as Mandip Singh and Tarun, both residents of Jalandhar.