TIMERGARA: Three persons were killed and one was injured when a speeding truck hit a vehicle loaded with water melons in Warsak area at wee hours on Friday, residents and police said.

According to police, the accident occurred when a Rawalpindi-bound truck went out of the driver`s control while negotiating a sharp turn.

They said the dead included drivers of the two trucks and a helper identified as Haneef, Taj Mohammad of Attock and Waqas Khan of Talash.

The dead and the injured were taken to the tehsil headquaners hospital, Chakdara, from where the injured, Naeem, a resident of Talash, was referred to a hospital in Peshawar in critical condition.

The speeding truck also hit an electricity pole, uprooting it, and suspending power supply to Talash, Osakai and Cheekho for over eight hours.

The Ouch police registered a case and started funher investigations.

Also, four people were injured when a car hit a rickshaw in Khall. The injured were shifted to the district headquarters hospital, Timergara.

The police registered a case and stahed investigations.

Meanwhile, deputy commissioner Shaukat Ali Yousafzai on Friday imposed section 144, banning motorcycle riding without helmets and directed filling stations not to sell petrol to the riders without wearing helmets.

An official said the ban was meant to curb increasing incidents involving bikes, where precious lives were lost as motorcyclists did not wear helmets.

He said Levies men in plain-clothes would be deputed at the petrol pumps so that action could be taken against the owners selling petrol to motorcyclists without helmets.-Correspondent