Hoshiarpur (Gurpreet Singh): Eight people, including seven schoolchildren, were injured on Friday afternoon when a speeding tipper truck rammed into a school van near Kadiana village on the Dosarka–Sham Chaurasi road in Hoshiarpur district. The vehicle, belonging to Sun Valley International School in Chakkowal Brahmana, was transporting roughly ten students back home after school hours when the oncoming truck struck it violently from the side. The impact was so severe that the school van was left heavily mangled, while the out-of-control truck veered completely off the asphalt and ground to a halt inside the adjacent agricultural fields.
Local villagers and commuters rushed to the site immediately after hearing the crash and pulled out the trapped children from the wreckage. All the injured passengers, including the 42-year-old van driver Kulwant Singh, were initially rushed to the Community Health Centre in Sham Chaurasi. Medical officials subsequently referred the driver and four children—aged between 4 and 13 years old—to the Civil Hospital in Hoshiarpur due to the severity of their injuries, while three students with minor abrasions were discharged after receiving necessary first-aid treatment. Following the incident, Punjab Cabinet Minister Dr. Ravjot Singh visited the healthcare facility to meet the injured victims and ensure the provision of premium medical care.
The road accident sparked massive fury among local residents and farmer groups. Activists from the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Qadian), led by state committee member Satpal Singh, joined hands with the villagers to stage an aggressive protest, completely blocking all traffic movements on the Dosarka–Sham Chaurasi highway for over an hour. The demonstrators demanded an absolute administrative ban on heavy commercial tipper trucks operating along the narrow school-commute corridor to prevent recurring fatalities. The blockade was later lifted after Bullowal Police Station House Officer, Sub-Inspector Parwinderjit Singh, arrived at the spot and assured the agitators that a statutory investigation had been initiated against the truck driver and that their road-safety grievances would be fast-tracked to senior district authorities.
