PATIALA: Six school children aged 6 to 8 years were killed on the spot and three others injured when a tipper overloaded with mining material hot a school van from the rear on Patiala-Samana road. The truck was allegedly engaged in illegal mining, the reports said.
The tipper belonging to Khatra Trading Company Patiala was being run in violation of all traffic rules. The driver didn't have the driving license and fitness certificate of tipper. The tipper was also without the security number plate. The police said that this tipper was challaned 20 years back for some violations including expired driving licence.
The deceased and injured students belonged to Bhupindra International school and they were returning home after school timing. SSP Pawinder Singh Cheema rushed to sport and rescued the students. The driver of ill fated TotoTa Innova Balwinder Singh also died in the accident. The driver of the truck is absconding, SSP said, adding he would be arrested soon
The accident has also exposed large scale illegal mining going on in Punjab. The most of the tippers involved in the illegal mining are running without number plates. A few days back a TV channel had shown about a dozen tippers pying without the number plates in Anandpur Sahib and Ropar area, the home constituency of education minister Harjit Singh Bains. The Regional Transport officers are not doing any checking of illegally plied vehicles.
The RTO Patiala said that it was the duty of traffic police to check the illegal vehicles. He said that whenever he laid naka, he always challan the vehicles for traffic violations.