A serial accident involving an SUV and two vans on airport road killed three men and left six severely injured on Friday afternoon.
The accident on Hunasamaranahalli flyover around 2 p.m. was caused after a tyre of the SUV burst.
The SUV hit the central median on the flyover and collided with a van, of a courier service, on the opposite lane.
As the two vehicles came to a sudden halt, another van rammed the courier vehicle, said an eyewitness.
The three killed in the SUV have been identified as the driver, Ashwath Babu, 40, his uncle, Muniraju, 64, and his son Prashanth, 33, who died in the hospital on Friday evening.
The others in the SUV, all family members, who are injured, have been identified as Ganapathi, 40, Nagaraju, 45, and Darshan, 29.
The family of farmers hails from Handiganala near Shidlaghatta, 60 km away from Bengaluru, and are close relatives of former Minister V. Muniyappa.
“The SUV driver, the passenger next to him in the bucket seat and the van driver were stuck and couldn’t be pulled out. The traffic police rushed to the spot with a crane.
“The van driver was stuck between the steering wheel and his seat.
“He was dragged out after almost half an hour and was lucky to be still alive,” said Venkatesh Murthy, an eyewitness.
The driver of the courier vehicle has been identified as Manikyam, 21, and is being treated at a private hospital in Byatarayanapura.
An executive with the courier firm Bharath Yadav, 22, is said to be out of danger.
Fareham, 29, the driver of the third vehicle, also suffered minor injuries.
Senior police officers have claimed that the accident was caused due to a burst tyre.
The Chikkajala Traffic Police have registered a case and are further probing the case.
Traffic snarl
The accident on the busy Hunasamaranahalli flyover, part of the expressway for Kempegowda International Airport, put traffic out of gear for several hours on airport road.
They were coming to see another accident victim
The six men in the SUV had come from their village to Bengaluru to visit a relative who had been seriously injured in an accident on Thursday.
“On Thursday my younger brother Narayanaswamy fell from his bike near the farm in the village and suffered a head injury. Ashwath Babu, my nephew who died in the accident today, rushed him to a hospital in Bengaluru and returned to the village this morning. On Friday, Babu left to help the family along with my elder brother Muniraju and a few others. Now they are gone,” said a B.N. Nanda, a family member.
