Two more dead on ‘killer’ Jalandhar-Amritsar highway stretch

With the death of two persons in road accidents on Friday morning,the number of people crushed to death by truckers on a single stretch of the Jalandhar-Amritsar highway in the past three weeks has reached seven. In the latest mishap,a teenaged girl,Akshi Mahajan,died when she was run over by a truck at the the Pathnakot Chowk,while crossing the road to board a Pathnakot-bound bus. The driver of the truck is absconding. In another incident,Sukhdip Singh (24) died when a truck hit his scooter near Focal Point. The driver in this case,Mahinder Singh,has been arrested.

It may be recalled that barely four days ago,two policemen died when an over-speeding truck hit the two motorcycle-borne cops on a flyover on the same highway,near Lawrence School.

In a similar incident,a woman and her son died when a truck hit them at almost the same place. Another victim was a 15-year-old boy of Kartarpur,who was crushed by a truck five days ago.

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Notably,truckers have been involved in a number of accidents on the Jalandhar-Amritsar highway in the past few months,causing more than 11 deaths.

When contacted,Jalandhar SSP Pawan Rai termed the recurring accidents as “unfortunate”. He assured that necessary action would be taken to check over-speeding and drunken driving.

“We are also planning to consult engineers to analyse if the stretch’s design needs to be changed,” he added.