4 DEAD AS TRUCK RUNS OVER SLEEPING LABOURERS IN JHAJJAR

CHANDIGARH: Four labourers from Uttar Pradesh, who were sleeping on the roadside, were killed and 12 others were injured after being run over by a truck in Haryana’s Jhajjar district on Thursday, police said. The police said the truck loaded with coal rammed into the median divider and turned turtle after the collision, hitting those sleeping at the spot.

The accident took place a day after a police patrol team advised the labourers not to sleep at the site at night in view of the risk posed by moving vehicles, officials said.

The accident occurred on the Kundli-manesar-palwal (KMP) expressway near Aasoda toll plaza in Bahadurgarh, they said.

The injured were referred to PGIMS hospital in Rohtak, they said, adding 18 labourers were at the spot at the time of the accident.

Aasoda police station Station House Officer, Inspector Jasvir Sangwan, said four labourers, who hailed from Kanpur, died in the incident.

Some of the injured were from Kanpur, Kannauj and Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

After the accident in the early morning, three labourers had died while the fourth one succumbed to his injuries in a hospital later in the day, Sangwan said.

The driver of the truck bearing Rajasthan registration number escaped after the accident, Superintendent of Police, Jhajjar, Waseem Akram told reporters at the accident site earlier in the day.

He said the labourers were engaged in repair work on a bridge and had slept on one side of the road at night.

They had also put-up temporary barriers and duct tape around them when they went to sleep, police said.

A police patrol party had on Wednesday evening advised the labourers not to sleep at the site at night in view of the risk posed by moving vehicles, the SP said.

However, after preparing the dinner, some of them slept there, he said.

He said the police will initiate action against the contractor and others concerned for letting the labourers sleep at the site.