ROURKELA: Drivers of two multi-axle trucks were charred to death after the vehicles collided head-on on State Highway (SH)-10 near Kainsara village under Bhasma police limits in Sundargarh district on Tuesday morning.
Bhasma police station IIC Amar Hota said an empty road trailer was speeding towards Sundargarh from Jharsuguda, while a Hyva truck laden with ash-like material was travelling to Jharsuguda from Sundargarh. At around 6.45 am, the speeding empty truck veered off the carriageway, crossed the median and rammed into the other truck coming from the opposite direction, he said.
Hota added that both vehicles became wedged together, trapping the drivers inside their respective cabins. The IIC said the fuel tank of one of the vehicles then leaked heavily, caught fire and rapidly turned into an inferno, engulfing both trucks as plumes of black smoke billowed into the air.
Hota said fire engines rushed to the spot and extinguished the blaze, but by then the vehicles had been gutted and both drivers burnt alive.
The IIC attributed the fatal mishap to rash and reckless driving by the driver of the empty truck.
Vehicular traffic on the Sundargarh–Jharsuguda stretch of SH-10 remained disrupted until police removed the vehicles and retrieved the bodies.
The bodies were preserved at the mortuary of the Sundargarh District Headquarters Hospital (SDHH) for post-mortem examination after police registered an unnatural death case.
Police identified the driver of the Hyva truck as Chhabindra Behura (49) of Mangalpatna village in Cuttack district, while the driver of the empty truck was identified as Sakil Khan (25) of Latehar district in Jharkhand.