Three people, including a patwari, were killed in a head-on collision between a truck and a car on the Pachgaon-Jamalpur road in Bilaspur on Wednesday evening. The truck driver fled after abandoning the vehicle at the spot. Police registered an FIR and seized the truck.
The deceased were identified as 40-year-old Kuldeep, 68-year-old Naval Singh and 70-year-old Samay Singh, all residents of Pukharpur village. Kuldeep was posted as a patwari with HSIIDC, Naval was a retired Army personnel and Samay was a farmer.
According to police, the three had gone to Jamalpur for some work and were returning to Pukharpur when their car collided head-on with an oncoming truck near Mokalwas village. Kuldeep was driving the vehicle.
The impact completely mangled the car, trapping all three occupants inside. Passersby alerted the police, pulled the victims out of the vehicle and rushed them to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared them dead.
Eyewitnesses said the accident triggered a long traffic jam on Jamalpur Road. Amid the chaos, the truck driver managed to flee the scene.
A senior police officer said the truck was registered in Daman and Diu and had arrived in Bilaspur carrying cargo.
“The bodies were sent for post-mortem examination, which will be conducted on Thursday. Efforts are on to trace and arrest the truck driver,” said Sub-Inspector Amit Kumar, the investigating officer.
