Four persons died and two were seriously injured in two separate road accidents near Perumbavoor on Wednesday.
The first accident, in which three were killed and two seriously injured, occurred at Vengola on the busy Perumbavoor-Kolencherry road.
In the other accident, Siyad, 24, a lorry cleaner hailing from Thiruvananthapuram, was crushed to death between two tipper lorries, close to the Kodanad police station near Perumbavoor.
Those who died at the Vengola accident were identified as Francis, 22, hailing from Thaikkal, near Cherthala; Shaji, 45, from Allapra near Perumbavoor and Davis, 49, hailing from Aimury, near Koovappady.
Those who sustained serious head and body injuries, Ameer, 21, hailing from Vennala in Kochi and Raju, 35, from Aimury, were taken to a private hospital at Perumbavoor town.
The condition of Raju was reported to be stable. He will undergo a surgery on Thursday. Ameer, who underwent a surgery later at a hospital in Kochi, is currently on the life support system, hospital sources here said.
According to an eyewitness, the accident occurred when the motorbike on which Shaji, Davis and Raju, were riding was trying to overtake a timber-laden lorry going to Pattimattam from Perumbavoor. The accident occurred at a spot where the road climbed steeply on a curve, forcing the lorry to slow down. The motor bike, moving in the same direction, tried to overtake the lorry on the curve and a car coming in the opposite direction hit the motor bike headon, applied the breaks, rammed into the lorry and turned full circle before coming to a halt.
Though the car was mangled and the doors were boxed in, onlookers and the lorry crew succeeded in extricating the two occupants and taking them to hospital. The driver of the car, Francis, was brought to the hospital dead.
Shop owners on the narrow stretch of road where the accident took place in the early hours of Wednesday said that accidents have been frequent on this stretch and said a motor-bike rider was seriously injured last week in an accident involving a private bus.
The accident spot, about 4 km from Perumbavoor towards Kolencherry, is on a road that carries more than its share of traffic marked by heavy vehicles carrying timber, granite, and building materials.
