It’s uncanny and sounds eerie. After completing his campaign for the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Khammam during the 2009 elections, returning to Hyderabad N.T. Rama Rao Jr. had a near-miss fatal accident.
Though out with multiple injuries, including the shoulder, the young actor recovered soon and went on to perform his ‘easy but difficult’ dance moves. It was in 2004, another election year, in December, when the Nandamuri family lost their son Janaki Ram in a highway accident, that sent a strong message on road safety. His bereaved siblings made sure that their movies opened and audio functions contained the message: “Observe road safety. We hope the tragedy that hit our family is not experienced by any other family.” Incidentally, the accidents to the Nandamuri family have a few things, albeit uncannily, in common. All the three accidents occurred in the contiguous Nalgonda district – Mothe in Suryapet, Akupamula in Munagala and Anneparthy in Nalgonda. And none of them wore seat belts. Wednesday’s accident, the police say, was a “miraculous escape” for his friends who also didn’t wear the seat belts. After crashing the road divider, the SUV at 160 kmph should have gone at least 15 feet high toppling multiple times, the police said.
According to Harikrishna’s friends, Venkat Rao and Shivaji, who were travelling with him on Wednesday, “he slowed down a lot after Janaki Ram’s incident in 2014, and he did not exceed 120 kmph now. Till today, not one car he owns has a scratch”.
Not the speed, but Harikrishna, in an attempt to avoid a stone steered to the right, “And that one moment, everything happened,” they rue. The stone he avoided was a marker on the extreme left of the highway. And, it was uncannily numbered ‘2’.
