BHARUCH: Nine employees of a pharma company along with a driver were killed and eight others injured when a truck collided with three vehicles on National Highway no. 8 here.
A steel pipes laden truck was heading towards Surat from Bharuch last night when its driver lost control of the vehicle near Panoli GIDC area on the national highway and hit a car, according to Ankleshwar rural police.
After hitting the car and, the truck jumped the divider and collided head-on with a Bhavnagar-bound state transport bus on the other side of the highway.
The truck them collided with a jeep going towards Bharuch carrying around 15 passengers.
"Because of the impact of the collision, the truck fell on the jeep, killing 10 persons travelling in it," a police official said.
While five passengers of the jeep died on the spot, five others died during treatment at a nearby hospital, police said.
The ten deceased included the jeep driver.
"All of them were residents of Bharuch. The nine passengers who died were employees of a pharma company and were going home after finishing their work," the official said.
"We are yet to find out why the truck driver lost control suddenly. Our primary investigation revealed that one of the truck tyres burst, making the vehicle unstable," he said.
The injured persons included the car driver, bus driver and conductor, and passengers of the jeep.
The truck driver and its cleaner fled from the spot leaving the vehicle.
A case has been lodged against the unidentified truck driver, police said, adding that further investigations were on.