A devastating accident on the Lucknow-Piprakothi stretch of National Highway 28 near Motihari resulted in five fatalities and left fourteen people injured on Sunday. The tragedy occurred when a speeding truck lost control and plowed into multiple vehicles waiting to cross the road.
Chaos on the Highway: The Sequence of Events
According to eyewitness accounts and police reports, the truck, which bore a Uttar Pradesh registration number and was arriving from the Gopalganj direction, first hit the divider before careening onto the service lane. The out-of-control vehicle then slammed into eight motorcycles, an autorickshaw, and several cyclists. The impact of the collision was so severe that it left four of the bodies mutilated on the road.
The victims, who were simply waiting to cross the road, bore the brunt of the crash. Police have identified four of the deceased as Ashok Sah, Nitesh Patel, Mohammad Kaif, and Mohammad Atif, all residents of the Kotawa area. A fifth victim could not be identified due to catastrophic head injuries.
Anger, Protests, and Official Response
The accident triggered immediate and intense anger among local villagers. Enraged by the loss of life, they blocked NH-28 for nearly five hours, demanding the immediate arrest of the truck driver and adequate compensation for the families of the victims. Protesters were heard raising slogans against the highway authority and the local police, creating a tense standoff with officers from the Kotawa police station.
Law and order was finally restored, and traffic resumed only after the intervention of Motihari Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Jitesh Pandey, who deployed approximately 200 police constables to the scene.
Senior police officials provided an initial assessment of the cause. DSP (Sadar-1) Dilip Kumar stated, "Prima facie, it appears that the truck driver dozed off behind the wheel, leading to the accident."
A Long-Standing Danger Spot
This tragic incident has once again highlighted the perils of the Dipau cut, the specific location under the Kotawa police station area where the accident took place. Local residents revealed that this spot, where the Areraj-Kesariya road intersects with NH-28, has become notoriously accident-prone.
For years, the community has been demanding the construction of an underpass or a road-over-bridge (ROB) to prevent such tragedies, but their pleas have gone unheeded. They alleged that even former MLA Manoj Yadav had staged protests urging the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to build an ROB, but the proposal was ultimately rejected.
Following the accident, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed profound grief and offered his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. He also directed the concerned authorities to ensure that the injured receive the best possible medical treatment at the hospital in Motihari.
