Eight people from Karnataka, including a three-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl, were killed and three people sustained severe injuries on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Shamshabad after a mango-laden lorry rammed into the maxi truck they were travelling by late on Friday. The injured were rushed to Osmania General Hospital (OGH) in Hyderabad and their condition is said to be critical.
The maxi truck was carrying 31 migrant labourers who were engaged with a road infrastructure firm at Suryapet. The driver, Hanuma Gowda, had created a partition with planks to accommodate more people and they started around 6 p.m. All of them were returning to their native place in Raichur and Yadgir districts in Karnataka as the road project they were working on has been stalled owing to the nationwide lockdown.
The Shamshabad police reached the accident site and a crane was used to pull out the bodies from the wreckage.
According to inspector R. Venkatesh, the maxi truck took the ORR near Abdullapurmet and was proceeding towards Hyderabad–Bengaluru national highway. When it was near Pedda Golconda toll gate around 11.30 p.m., the mango-laden lorry rammed into the maxi truck. “The 14-tonne lorry was proceeding to Baroda in Gujarat from Nuzividu in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh,” Mr. Venkatesh said.
The impact of the accident was such that five people died on the spot, while three others succumbed to their injuries while undergoing treatment in the hospital. The bodies were shifted to OGH morgue for autopsy.
The victims were identified as Rangappa (27), Sharanappa (25), Amaresh (18), Kolappa (25), Subash Patanshetty (50), Sridevi (8), Basamma (25) and her three-year-old son Hanumanta.
Though there is a ban on inter-State border crossing, several migrant farmers are desperately trying to head back home.
