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Bhubaneswar: Two drivers were burnt alive after two 18-wheeler trailer trucks collided head-on on Biju Expressway in Odisha’s Sundargarh district in the early hours of Tuesday.

According to police sources, the speeding empty truck veered off the carriageway, crossed the median ear Kaintara Chhak under Bhasma police limits on State Highway-10  and rammed into the oncoming truck at around 6.45 am. One of vehicles leaked heavily under the impact of the collision and caught fire. The inferno then engulfed both trucks.

On being informed, Bhasma Police along with the Fire Services personnel rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control. However, trapped inside their mangled cabins, the drivers were unable to escape and were burnt alive. Traffic on the Sundargarh–Jharsuguda stretch of SH-10 was disrupted for several hours amid efforts to clear the charred wreckage of the two trailers and retrieve the bodies of the drivers, who have been identified ad Chhabindra Behura (49) of Mangalpatna village in Cuttack district and Sakil Khan (25) of Latehar district in Jharkhand.

Police have attributed the accident to rash and reckless driving by the driver of the empty truck. A unnatural death case has been registered and the bodies preserved at the mortuary of the Sundargarh district headquarters hospital for postmortem.