Five persons, including four of a family, were killed and one person injured when the vehicle in which they were travelling lost control and hurtled into waters of the Alappuzha-Changanassery Canal here early on Thursday.
The deceased were identified as Balabhadran, his wife Saraswati, their sons Murugan and Krishnakumar, and a family friend, Vinod Kumar. Karunakaran Nair, 60, a relative, sustained serious injuries and is undergoing treatment at the T.D. Medical College Hospital, Vandanam, here.
According to the police, Balabhadran and his family, hailing from Eraviperoor near Kollam, were on their way to Pala to his daughter’s house when the accident occurred around 2.30 a.m. near Pallikuttumma on the AC Road. Krishnakumar, who runs a railway component engineering unit in Bangalore had arrived for a vacation and the family, after witnessing the festival at the local temple, had set out for Pala from Kollam late in the night.
Police believe Krishnakumar, who was driving the Scorpio car, could have slept off. The vehicle first hit a roadside coconut tree and hurtled at full speed into the canal. Local people, who heard the crash, alerted the police and the fire force, who rushed to rescue the passengers who were trapped in the vehicle. However, only Karunakaran Nair could be saved.
The bodies have been kept in the morgue at the Alappuzha General Hospital.
