Five members of the same family were killed in a road accident on Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway near Lambani Tanda in Channapatna taluk of Ramanagara district on Saturday, April 22.
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The deceased have been identified as Ravi Pujar, 45, who was driving the car, his wife Lakshmi Pujar, 40, and their three children Inchara Pujar, 15, Shantala Pujar, 10, and Siri Pujar, 3. Ravi Pujar was an employee of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) and the family resided in Kengeri. On Saturday, the family was on its way to T. Narasipura, Mysuru district, when the accident occurred on the new Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway.
Ramanagara Police said that the car was probably overspeeding and one of the tyres of the car, the family was travelling in, suffered blowout and Ravi Pujar lost control over his car. The car swung across the expressway and landed on the opposite lane to collide head on with a SUV coming from Mysuru towards Bengaluru. The impact of the collision was so massive that the front portion of the car was completely mangled. Soon, passersby rushed to the rescue of the family and removed them from the mangled remains of the car.
While Ravi Pujar was killed on the spot, the remaining four were still alive and were rushed to a nearby private hospital. However, his two daughters Inchara and Siri passed away on the way to the hospital. Lakshmi Pujar and her daughter Shantala Pujar were critically injured and were rushed to NIMHANS in Bengaluru. However, they too succumbed to their injuries later in the day.
Overspeeding and increasing number of accidents on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway have been a growing concern ever since the expressway was thrown open to the public recently. A senior police official said that since the expressway provided a free right of way, unlike the old highway many were prone to overspeeding leading to accidents.