Two die, 8 injured as van rams into under-construction culvert

PILIBHIT: Two persons died and eight were injured in a road accident on Bareilly-Haridwar national highway 74 near Jaitpur village at about 1am on Sunday.
The accident took place when the driver of a pickup van, ferrying 10 pilgrims from Badaun to Purnagiri temple in Uttarakhand’s Champawat, lost control of the vehicle that fell into a roadside ditch.
The vehicle driver and the guard of the culvert were killed while eight passengers sustained multiple injuries. They were shifted to the district hospital. Prabhash Chandra, SHO, said the driver was identified as Avdhesh (18) of Zarifnagar village and the guard as Dhani Ram (40) of Bahraich district. He said that the culvert guard was on night duty with a red flag when he was directly hit by the vehicle.
The locals alleged that the culvert was under construction for a long time and the national highway authority had not installed radium reflectors at the site for warning those driving on the highway at night.