Dharmasala: Four persons, including two women, were killed in a road mishap at Jaraka Bazaar near here in Jajpur district Monday.
The incident occurred when the car they were travelling in rammed a stationary cargo truck near Jaraka bus-stand on National Highway-5.
The deceased were identified as Sibaram Manna (53), Binodini Manna, Bishnupada Sahu (45) and Sandhyarani Sahu (50) of Digha in West Bengal.
They were on their way to Cuttack for Binodini’s treatment at SCB Medical College and Hospital.
Driver Arup Bera was rescued from the mangled car and rushed to Dharmasala community health centre.
Doctors administered him primary treatment and shifted him to Cuttack after his condition worsened, a police official said.
The mishap was so severe that police officials had to struggle for hours and use a JCB machine to pull out the bodies from the mangled remains of the car which had got stuck on the rear of the truck.
“On being informed, we reached the spot and pulled out the mangled car from below the truck with assistance of local people and fire brigade personnel,” inspector-in-charge of Dharmasala police station Amitav Mohapatra said.
The bodies have been sent for postmortem to Barchana community health centre (CHC). The kin of the deceased have been informed about the accident over phone, he said.
In another incident, a driver of cargo-laden truck and his helper sustained critical injuries after their vehicle plunged 10-ft off Jaraka over-bridge at 11 am.
The injured driver B Ganesh (52) and his helper SA Ganesh (55) were rescued by Dharmasala police and Chandikhole fire brigade personnel and admitted to the Dharmasala community health centre.
Locals alleged the stretch from Neulpur to Gokarneshwar on the highway has turned into a death zone resulting in severe loss of lives and properties at frequent intervals.
They urged National Highway Authority of India to look into the problem and free the stretch from regular mishaps. PNN
