Four persons, including two engineering students, were killed when a speeding bus rammed a two-wheeler and a car on the Varappuzha bridge in the wee hours of Monday.
According to the police, Akshay Sasikumar, 22, from Cherambra in Malappuram and Jijisha Jafar, 23, from Nilambur — both final year IT students at Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) — who were travelling in the ill-fated car were declared brought dead at a private hospital here. The bike riders, Harindrashankar T., 27, who hails from North Paravur, and Kiran Babu, 27, from Pallikara — both employed at Infopark — died on the spot.
“The accident occurred around 1 a.m. when the bus driver lost control over the vehicle and rammed the bike before colliding with the car. While Harindrashankar and Kiran Babu died on the spot, Akshay and Jisha, who were pulled out after cutting open the car, died on the way to hospital,” said Crispin Sam, Circle Inspector of Police, North Paravur.
Three other women passengers in the car — Alappuzha native Gudiya S. Lal, 22, Kozhikode native Athira Sasikumar, 22, and Athulya Nair, 22, from Palakkad — sustained grievous injuries and are undergoing treatment at the intensive care unit of a private hospital. However, their condition is said to be out of danger.
Meanwhile, six persons who were travelling in the bus were admitted to hospital after suffering minor injuries. They were discharged later.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the bus, carrying a group of pilgrims who had been returning to Edappal after visiting the Mata Amritanandamayi Asram at Vallikavu in Kollam, was in the wrong lane and speeding.
The Cusat students were returning to their college at Kalamassery after attending New Year celebrations at Kadamakudy. The bike riders too were on the way to Ernakulam from North Paravur.
“According to a preliminary probe, the bus driver, Vipin Raj, had dozed off. In the impact of the collision, both the car and the bike were reduced to a heap of mangled metal,” police said. Vipin Raj was arrested and charged under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the IPC.
Deadly stretch
The 24-km stretch of National Highway 17 from Varappuzha bridge to Moothakunnam Junction had witnessed several accidents, many of them fatal, over the past several years. The over 500-metre bridge is a straight stretch, prompting drivers to resort to speeding though the road width is grossly inadequate to accommodate the traffic flow, said a senior Motor Vehicles Department official.
The bridge and roads linked to it witnessed 66 accidents in the past one year alone, forcing the police to serve a letter on the NHAI directing it to set up warning signals and other safety measures.
Though a road safety audit conducted by the department in March 2014, the recommendations, including establishment of junction-specific driver alerting system, are yet to be implemented.
