Bhubaneswar: Five police personnel were killed and three others critically injured early on Sunday morning after a speeding trailer rammed into a police vehicle in Odisha’s Jharsuguda district, police said.
Jharsuguda Superintendent of Police (SP) Gundala Raghavendra Reddy said the collision occurred at dawn in front of the Jharsuguda Sadar Police Station.
The police vehicle was on patrol duty when the trailer, travelling at high speed from the opposite direction, collided head-on with it. “The exact sequence of events is yet to be established. We are interrogating the trailer driver,” said the SP.
Police have identified the deceased as Armed Police Reserve personnel Kashiram Bhoi and Debadatta Sa, Drill Sub-Inspector Niranjan Kujur, Armed Police Reserve havildar Lingaraj Dhurua, and Home Guard Bhaktabandhu Mirdha.
Three others — two APR personnel and a sergeant — who were injured were taken to the Jharsuguda District Headquarters Hospital.
According to accident data for 2024 released by the Commerce and Transport Department, overspeeding led to 7,269 road accidents and 3,846 deaths, while wrong-side driving claimed 470 lives in 1,103 accidents. Drunken driving and drug consumption caused 317 deaths in 838 accidents, mobile phone use while driving resulted in 235 deaths in 585 accidents, and jumping red lights led to 35 deaths in 88 accidents.
The data show that 55 per cent of all accidents and 56 per cent of fatalities in 2024 occurred on national and state highways. Two-wheelers were involved in the highest number of crashes — 5,490 accidents resulting in 3,017 deaths — followed by cars, taxis and LMVs (1,796 accidents and 739 deaths), and trucks and lorries (1,296 accidents and 607 fatalities).
Over the last decade, more than 47,000 people have died and over one lakh have been seriously injured in road accidents in Odisha. On average, 16 people lose their lives every day on the state’s roads, placing Odisha among the states with the highest accident severity rates.
