The six passengers and the driver of the autorickshaw endured 15 minutes of horror, while they were witness to the death of five persons due to electrocution and burning due to fire in the Chillakondaiahpalli accident in which an 11-KV HT electric wire fell on the autorickshaw at 7 a.m. on Thursday.
What surprised everyone was that the power supply did not get tripped at the sub-station once the wire got snapped. Several calls to the SPDCL office allegedly went unanswered as none picked the phone for a long time.
The autorickshaw dragged the wire for about 50 metres along with it as there was an iron cot tied on top of the overloaded vehicle. While the autorickshaw was meant for four persons (driver+3 passengers) 12 persons were travelling in it, which is a regular practice in both Anantapur and SSS districts and it goes unchecked.
“As soon as the auto caught fire due to sparks from the wire, those sitting at the back and on the side rods holding the iron poles of the passenger cabin in the auto, could not move and remained still till the tarpaulin cover got fully burnt and fire engulfed them also,” 42-year-old Shivaratnamma, one of the survivors along with Ramadevi, 35, told The Hindu.
The driver alerted them about the likely electrocution and asked those surviving and sitting in the middle of the auto, to jump out without touching any of the rods of the vehicle. “This advice saved us and we jumped out to safety within minutes, but endured the horror for 15 minutes helplessly watching other relatives getting charred after electrocution,” she bemoaned.
“The autorickshaw has all the permissions and documents as it was a new one registered in 2021 November, but it was overloaded violating the permitted number of four. We have given our report on this and an FIR has been filed against the auto driver too,” said District Transport Officer Niranjan Reddy who along with the Anantapur Deputy Transport Commissioner N. Sivaram Prasad visited the accident spot.
