By IANS,
Panchkula (Haryana) : Six people, including five engineering students, were killed and five other students were seriously injured in a road accident here Monday, the police said.
“Eleven students were going to their college, when their vehicle collided with a speeding truck coming from the opposite direction,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kalia told IANS.
The accident occurred along the National Highway 73, connecting Panchkula and Yamunanagar, at a spot about 20 km from here.
Four students and the driver of the vehicle in which they were travelling died on the spot while one student died in the hospital in the evening.
“The police have arrested the driver of the truck, Hem Raj, who hails from Himachal Pradesh. He was driving a truck with the Himachal registration number and was going to Chandigarh,” Kalia said.
“Three of the five people who are critically injured have been shifted to the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, while other two are recuperating at a private hospital here,” he said.
“The victims have been identified as civil engineering students of the Swami Devi Dyal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Barwala town in Haryana. The bodies have been sent for autopsy.”
The victims included Srikant from Delhi, Deepak Nain and Hardeep from Haryana and Kamaljit and Jasbir from Punjab. They were staying here in a paying-guest accommodation.
Their driver was identified as Deep Chand of Panchkula.
A fellow student said: “They (the 11 students) were going to appear in a practical examination in the morning. Every day we go to the college in the same vehicle from Panchkula and paid its driver the monthly fees.”