The driver and two passengers of a private air-conditioned luxury bus were killed and another passenger was injured when the vehicle lost control and hit a building near Karumarampalayam situated along Tirupur-Uthukuli road around 1.30 a.m. on Tuesday. In all, 28 passengers were travelling in the bus.
The deceased were identified as R. Raja (39), the bus driver hailing from Dharmapuri district, Rayon Naval Kumar Sarma (23), a native of Alappuzha district in Kerala and Frederick Leo (37), a native of Chennai.
The injured, Abraham (23), a resident of Bangalore, was admitted to a private hospital.
The bus and the building that houses two shopswere badly damaged.
Inspector K. Krishnamoorthy of Tirupur North police station told The Hindu that the accident occurred after the driver lost control of the bus while trying to avoid hitting a vehicle.
The bus was said to be travelling at high speed, he said.
The scheduled route of the private luxury buses that operate services from Bangalore to southern parts of Kerala were through NH-47 stretch covering Coimbatore, Walayar and Palakkad.
However in the recent times, the vehicles had been taking a deviation from Chengapalli and proceeding via Tirupur, Palladam and Pollachi to join Palakkad-Thrissur highway to avoid the road works under way near Walayar as well as the traffic snarls at Walayar check post, the police sources said.
The bodies of Rayon Sarma and Raja were handed over to the relatives after the autopsy.
The Tirupur North police have registered a case.
