An expectant couple and two brothers were among five persons killed in three separate accidents that took place within two hours on National Highway 66 between Kumbla in Kasaragod, and Pumpwell Circle — a distance of 35 km — on Thursday. Another person drowned in the Netravathi River.
The three accidents also left three persons injured. In the fourth accident, on the Mangalore-Bangalore National Highway at Valachil, two persons escaped with minor injures when their car fell into a ditch.
In the first accident, a full-term pregnant woman, Babitha (25), and husband Rama (35), were killed, when their autoriskshaw collided head-on with a Mangalore-bound Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation bus around 9.15 a.m. near Kumbla railway station. The conditions Babitha’s mother, Janaki (48), and the autorikshaw driver, being treated in two Mangalore hospitals, are critical, the police said.
The police said the accident happened when Babitha was being taken to hospital after she developed pain.
At 10 a.m., two brothers — Umar Rasheed (24) and Mohammed Noushad (22) — were knocked down and killed when their motorcycle was hit by a Mangalore-bound private bus near Yekkur Junction. Eyewitnesses said Rasheed was riding the motorcycle and Noushad riding pillion, and were headed for the city. Rasheed lost control over the bike after he overtook the private bus going to State Bank bus stand. The two died on the spot.
An hour later, a 55-year old man, Cornel D’Souza, on a scooter was run over and killed by an oil tanker on the Ullal Bridge. D’Souza’s nephew Anil D’Souza said his uncle, who runs a workshop in Chembugudde, had left house in Kerebail to buy some stationary articles. Mr. D’Souza leaves behind wife and five children. The police arrested the driver of the tanker.
Drowned
A fisherman from Jeppupatna, Paul Lobo (52), drowned in the Netravathi River on Thursday when he was out fishing. Fire and Emergency Services personnel and local swimmers fished out Lobo’s body.
