As many as 12 persons from Bangalore were injured in a road accident when a van in which they were travelling overturned near Bellur Cross near Adichunchunagiri, Nagamangala of Mandya district, in the early hours of Sunday.
In all, 15 persons, including the driver (Mahesh), left here from Mudalapalya and were on their way to Dharmasthala when the accident occurred on National Highway 48.
The injured were initially rushed to the Adichunchunagiri hospital for first aid following which they were brought to the city and admitted in various hospitals.
Eight of them, identified as Indira (45), Mamatha (20), Pradeep (29), Latha (45), Nagaraj (55), Shruthi (26), Bhuvaneshwari (45) and Prasanna (18), were taken to Hosmat Hospital and the others, Manjunath (59), Suvarna (38) and Renuka (50), were admitted in St. Philomena’s Hospital, while Kamalamma (60) and Venugopal (29) were shifted to M.S Ramaiah Hospital.
A three-year-old child, Yashas Kumar, who was travelling with the family, was unhurt. All of them live in various areas like Ulsoor, Vijayanagar and Nagarbhavi.
Speaking to The Hindu , one of the injured, Pradeep, a cab driver and a resident of Nagarbhavi, said: “All of us set out around 10 p.m. in the van. Around 12.30 a.m., our vehicle was overtaken by a KSRTC bus following which the driver (Mahesh) lost control and the van hit the divider, overturned and fell on the other side of the road.”
He said that they were later rescued by passersby and rushed to Adichunchanagiri hospital.
A relative of Pradeep, who was at the Hosmat Hospital, Pushpa, said: “I got a message from one of my cousins around 2 a.m. We were extremely tensed but now most of them are stable. However, two of them have been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and are expected to undergo surgery.”
Hosmat hospital representatives said that Mamatha underwent an abdominal surgery, while Indira is expected to undergo a surgery on Monday.
They said that most of their patients had sustained rib fractures.
But Prasanna, who remained unhurt, was discharged immediately after he was brought to the hospital.
Shruthi, a resident of Vijayanagar, was another one of the injured, who was sitting by the side of her mother Bhivaneshwari who had sustained fractures.
“I was sleeping in when a sudden jerk awakened me. “Before I realised what was happening, the van overturned. I am just hoping my mother will get better soon,” she said.
Meanwhile, St. Philomena’s Hospital representatives said that Manjunath and Suvarna, who were admitted to the ICU, are recoveringwhile M.S. Ramaiah Hospital said that both Venugopal, who had sustained a hand injury, and Kamalamma were stable.
A case was also registered in the Bellur police station in connection with the accident.
