TURA/SHILLONG: Five persons were killed and nine others injured when a jampacked auto-rickshaw coming from Mankachar to Holy Cross Hospital, Tura rammed into a roadside electric post after losing control on a steep slope at Agillanggre locality of the town on Monday morning. The accident occurred near the Home Guards Compound located in the vicinity.
According to eye witness sources, the ill-fated three wheeler bearing registration number, ML 08 C-9872 was carrying at least 15 passengers when it hit the roadside post before rolling over several times and hitting a nearby wall.
While a man and a woman died on the spot, the others injured were rushed to the hospital by SRDF personnel where two other women and a boy also succumbed to their injuries. Meanwhile, till the filing of this report a three-month-old baby who was also in the vehicle remained missing.
Superintendent of Police (SP) of West Garo Hills district, Raghavendra Kumar said the accident occurred when the tempo carrying so many passengers lost control on the steep gradient of the road may be due to brake failure.
He said as per the preliminary enquiry, the primary cause of the accident was attributed to brake failure and the contributory cause was the overload of passengers. All the deceased are from the same family.
The official said, an inquiry committee headed by a gazette officer regarding road safety and safety of passengers would investigate the accident. Stringent measures would be taken based on the report submitted by the inquiry committee to ensure road safety as well as the safety of passengers, he added.
The deceased have been identified as: Salima Khatun (35), Sajeda Begum (30), Sahenr Ali (45), Abdullah Hussain (3), Kunsun Begum (50), all from village Bengarbhitta, Mankachar of South Salmara district in Assam.