Bihar headmaster dies, 3 teachers hurt in head-on collision between auto, tanker

BETTIAH: A headmaster of a government school was killed and three teachers were among the injured when an autorickshaw they were travelling in collided head-on with an oil tanker near Madhubani Ghat in East Champaran district on Wednesday, police said.

Manish Kumar, station house officer (SHO), Mufassil police station said the incident took near Madhubani Ghat when five people including the driver and the teachers of two government schools were on their way to Bhelwa in the district’s Madhuban block, about 35 km from district headquarters Motihari.

Kumar attributed the head-on collision to low visibility due to dense fog in the area.

Kumar said the headmaster, Naresh Kumar, 55, died on the spot while three teachers and the driver were admitted to the hospital after the head-on collision with the oil tanker.

The headmaster was posted at Rajkiya Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya at Bhelwa. The injured teachers have been identified by the police as Sushma Patel and Nahid Kamar of Rajkiya Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya and Anita Kumari, a teacher attached with the middle school at Bhelwa.

Nahid Kamar, who sustained injuries in the accident, told HT on the phone that the accident took place at about 7:30am when they were on their way to their respective schools on the autorickshaw. “Suddenly, I was tossed out of the vehicle due to the impact of the collision and landed in a roadside ditch. When I opened my eyes, I saw the headmaster and two other teachers lying in a pool of blood,”

Police said the driver of the vehicle has been arrested and the deceased’s body has been handed over to the family after conducting a postmortem.