Guwahati: Five persons were killed after their passenger van collided with an Arunachal Pradesh-registered truck on NH-15 at Tubukijhar in Sonitpur district around midnight on Friday. The impact sent the van tumbling into a roadside ditch.The deceased were identified as Har Gobinda Hajoari, Nayan Swargiary, Papu Bora, Pranjal Bania and Sanjay Mech, all residents of Batabari village in the Ghoramari area near Tezpur. The crash site, near an oil depot, is barely 2km from their village.Sanjay worked as a supervisor with Dubar Company near Tezpur, while Papu was a daily wage earner. Nayan owned the school van involved in the accident and also ran a small business. Har Gobinda owned a shop, while Pranjal was engaged in small businesses near his home.The van was mangled beyond recognition and the occupants were trapped inside. Rescue personnel had to make considerable efforts to extricate the bodies from the wreckage.The truck driver fled the spot after the crash but was arrested later. Police said he is a resident of Arunachal Pradesh.A police officer said the highway stretch had no divider and both vehicles were reportedly travelling at high speed.“During preliminary investigation, we found that both vehicles were travelling at high speed. The exact circumstances and who was at fault will be established once the investigation is complete. We are currently questioning the truck driver to ascertain the sequence of events,” a police officer said.“The truck was travelling towards Tezpur from Balipara, while the five youths were coming from the opposite direction. By the time police took them to the hospital, none of them showed any apparent signs of life. The doctors declared all five dead shortly after they were brought in,” the police officer said, adding that the bodies were subsequently sent for autopsy.Sonitpur DC Ananda Das visited the accident site, while Rangapara MLA Krishna Kamal Tanti met the bereaved families. Das said preliminary probe suggested that speeding was likely to have been the main factor behind the collision.A pall of gloom descended on the village as the bodies of the five youths were brought in separate ambulances later in the evening. Hundreds of villagers gathered to pay their last respects to the deceased.
