Three youths killed in smash-up

LUCKNOW: Reckless driving yet again killed three youths, including an undergraduate student, when a truck hit them in Manak Nagar area here on Friday midnight.

The trio included a Hasanganj resident Tej Pratap Singh and his two friends Rohit ,22 and Sanjay, 20. Singh was pursuing his graduation in a city college while the two others did painting work.

The incident took place when the three friends were going towards Budheshawar crossing from Barabirwa crossing to attend a function at their common friend’s place. District police spokesman, Alok Pathak said Singh, who was driving the motorcycle, took a wrong turn towards a liquor shop while coming down the Kannausi bridge. “This fault claimed their lives, as the truck coming from behind failed to spot them and rammed into the motorcycle. Singh died on the spot while two others were critically injured and later succumbed during treatment at Lok Bandhu hospital,” he said.

Pathak said the youths were also flouting safety norms, as they were riding triple and were not wearing helmets. The truck driver fled the spot with his vehicle after the accident. The bodies were sent for postmortem examination. Singh’s elder brother Anand Singh had lodged an FIR against an unidentified driver for causing deaths due to negligence and efforts were on to trace the truck, he said.

This is the third incident of road mishap that claimed the lives of eight people in the past three days.