The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
4 children among 8 killed as truck falls on shanty in UP
EIGHT PERSONS, including four children, died when a truck loaded with sand overturned and fell on them while they were asleep in a roadside shanty at Mallawan in Hardoi district on Wednesday morning, police said. The police have seized the truck and arrested its driver.
The deceased are Awadesh alias Balla, 40, his wife Sudha, 42, Lalla, 5, Sunena, 11, Buddhu, 4, Sudha’s son-in-law Karan, 25, his wife Heero, 20, and their son Bihari, 2. Karan’s daughter Bittu, who was also injured, is undergoing treatment at the hospital. Doctors said her condition is stable.
According to the Hardoi police, they received information on Wednesday morning that a sand-laden truck had overturned and fallen on a roadside shanty where several people were sleeping.
A police team reached the spot and removed the truck using a bulldozer. The sand was cleared and the victims were sent to hospital for treatment, where doctors declared eight of them dead on arrival.
Preliminary inquiries revealed that after the truck overturned, it took a while for anyone to realise that a family was living there, as the sand had spilled extensively. Local residents eventually raised an alarm and the police were immediately informed.
The initial investigation found that the truck was en route to Hardoi city after mining sand from the banks of the Ganga. It is suspected that the truck overturned while making a turn due to the excess load of sand.
“We are at the accident site and examining the cause behind this incident. All the bodies have been sent for postmortem and the truck driver has been arrested,” said Hardoi District Magistrate M Mangla Prasad Singh.