Out-of-control truck kills 15 on Indian roadside

 An out-of-control dumper truck crushed fifteen people to death as they slept by the roadside early Tuesday in western India, authorities said.

The dead included a baby girl, eight women and six men, said police official Usha Rada in the Suraj district of Gujarat state. Six others were injured, reports AFP.

The truck collided with a tractor carrying sugarcane just after midnight at a crossroads.

“The dumper driver… lost control of the vehicle and went off the road, crushing labourers sleeping on the roadside,” deputy police superintendent C M Jadeja said.

Police said that the drivers of both the dumper truck and the tractor have been arrested.

High-speed vehicles jostling with motorbikes, pedestrians and cyclists combine with poor infrastructure and poorly maintained vehicles to make India’s roads treacherous.

In 2019 more than 150,000 people died — 410 every day or 17 an hour — in almost half a million accidents, according to the government.

On Monday, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated Road Safety Month, saying that the government aimed to halve road deaths and accidents by 2025.