Five killed, five injured as truck hits road divider

Surat: Five people were killed and five suffered serious injuries when a truck in which they were travelling crashed into a road divider and overturned on

Puna Saroli Road

in the city due to dense fog on Sunday morning. Surat fire brigade team used a steel cutter to cut open the driver’s cabin in the truck to remove the trapped victims.

Preliminary investigation by police revealed that the driver lost control over the vehicle in the dense fog and crashed into a road divider because he was unable to see anything which caused the truck to overturn at around 5.45am. Locals from Puna Saroli Road near Shyam Sangini Textile Market woke up to the noise of the accident and rushed to help and also alerted 108 ambulance service.

The ambulance staff shifted six people to Surat Municipal Institute of Medical Education and Research (SMIMER). “108 ambulance paramedics were not able to remove those injured from the truck that had overturned. Fire brigade was called whose team cut open the truck driver’s cabin to take out the bodies and injured persons,” a 108 ambulance officer said.

The deceased were Iqbal Hamad Gulab Khan; 40, Shindha

Shankar Thakur

, 66; Vithabai Suresh Thakur, 40; Pravin Suresh Thakur, 19; and Aabid Shabbir Saiyed, 40. Truck driver Iqbal was alive after the accident and died during treatment at a hospital. Among the other deceased, three persons were from same family of Dhule. They were going to attend a marriage in Dumbhal area of the city in the truck.

Aamin Salim Khatik, 22; Faruq Mansuri, 47; Salim Ansari, 60;

Aabidkhan Pathan

, 24; and Mukhtar Rehman Ansari, 52, were injured and admitted to SMIMER for treatment.

There were 10 people, including the driver, in the truck driver’s cabin. The truck had left Dhule in Maharashtra for Surat with cattle feed on Saturday night.