Five people were killed after a Maruti Suzuki Eeco van collided head-on with a truck on National Highway 15 in Assam’s Sonitpur district late Friday night, police said on Saturday. The truck driver remains untraced. The accident occurred in the Balipara area around 11:30 pm. According to Sonitpur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Barun Purkayastha, police reached the spot after receiving information about the crash and found five men critically injured. The injured were rushed to a nearby government hospital, where two were declared dead on arrival. The remaining three died while undergoing treatment. Police identified the deceased as Harobinda Hazoary, 38, Pranjal Bania, 39, Sanjay Mech, 39, Papu Borah, 45, and Nayan Swargiary, 45. All five were residents of Batabari. The group was travelling from Tezpur town towards Rangapara in the Eeco when it collided with a truck approaching from the opposite direction.

Police said the exact cause of the crash is still being investigated. However, preliminary findings suggest that the Eeco may have lost control and crossed into the opposite lane before colliding with the truck. “The incident was reported at around 11:30 pm and a police team went to the spot where they found five critically injured men. They were taken to a nearby government hospital where two of them were declared dead on arrival while three others succumbed during treatment,” SSP Barun Purkayastha said. An officer said police were also searching for the truck driver, who fled the scene following the collision. Local residents who witnessed the accident claimed both vehicles were travelling at high speed. One resident who alerted the police said the impact was so intense that the sound of the collision could be heard from nearby homes. Police have seized both vehicles and sent the bodies to Sonitpur Civil Hospital for postmortem examinations. The accident comes amid the Assam government's efforts to improve road safety. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said road fatalities in the state have declined in recent years. Despite this, road accidents remain a concern in Assam. According to state government figures, nearly 4,000 road accidents have been reported in the state so far this year, with hundreds of people losing their lives.