19 killed, 7 injured after cement-laden truck overturns on highway in Gujarat's Bhavnagar

19 people, including 12 women and three children were killed, in a major road accident on the Bhavnagar-Ahmedabad highway.

The incident took place early Saturday. Six others have been injured in the incident.

According to the police, the truck carrying the people turned turtle. The truck was carrying cement bags and labourers of Sartanpar village of Bhavnagar’s Talaja district. The labourers had asked the truck driver for a lift late Friday night. They had paid the driver Rs 1,200 to drop them to Sanad.

During the primary investigation of police, it was revealed that the truck was overloaded due to which the driver lost control of the vehicle resulting in it going off the road where it overturned. Eighteen people died on the spot while one succumbed to his injuries at the Bhavnagar hospital during treatment.

The truck driver managed to escape and a search for him is on.

S.M Jadeja, Sub-inspector of Dholera Police station, said, "It was a pure case of negligence on part of the the driver. We suspect that driver must have slept while driving. All the passengers were sitting on the bags of cement and when the accident took place. The bags crushed them to death in the accident."

As per police, they were 4km away from the spot and were on night patrol when the incident took place and within 15 min they reached the spot before other help could reach. Two of the people were rescued from the spot by policemen, while the others were stuck under the truck.