Kolkata, Dec 27 : Three people were killed in a road accident caused by dense fog in West Bengal's Alipurduar district on Saturday.

According to the police, the incident occurred due to a head-on collision between a small car and a 12-wheeler trailer. After the accident, the trailer fell into a ditch beside the road.

Police said that a small car was travelling towards Siliguri in north Bengal. The trailer was coming from the opposite direction.

The accident took place in the Garam Basati area of â??â??National Highway 31 in Alipurduar after an overtaking manoeuvre failed.

The car was completely mangled due to the impact of the accident.

Among them, the driver of the car, Monojit Biswas, died on the spot. He was a resident of the Sankosh tea garden area in the Kumargram area of Alipurduar district.

The other two deceased were identified as Souvik Biswas and Raju Mandal.

Souvik was Monojit's cousin and a resident of the Sankosh tea garden, while Mandal was a resident of Alipurduar and a car mechanic by profession.

Locals said that north Bengal has been experiencing dense fog for the past few days.

As a result, visibility on the roads is almost zero, which is why this accident occurred, they said.

Police officials have already advised drivers to be cautious while travelling on roads, especially on National Highways.

The officials are also considering providing hot milk, tea and biscuits for drivers travelling at night.

Siliguri's DCP (Traffic) Kazi Shamsuddin Ahmed said, "Visibility decreases during this time every year due to dense fog. Everyone needs to be more careful while driving on the road. Today, three people were killed in a road accident. We will advise people to be cautious while driving."

Meanwhile, this morning, a container truck overturned after hitting the divider on the Vidyasagar Bridge in Kolkata.

A major accident was averted as the container's speed was low. However, the incident caused traffic to move very slowly on the bridge which connects Howrah with Kolkata.

/IANS