Eight people, including a three-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl from Karnataka, were killed and three others suffered severe injuries on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Shamshabad after a mango-laden lorry rammed the Bolero maxi truck they were travelling late on Friday. The wounded were rushed to Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad and their condition is said to be critical.
The mini-truck was carrying 31 migrant labourers who were engaged with a road infrastructure firm in Suryapet district of Telangana. The driver, Hanuma Gowda, 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 was stalled owing to the nationwide lockdown. Shamshabad police reached the collision site and a crane was used to pull out the bodies from the wreckage.
According to inspector R. Venkatesh, the ill-fated vehicle took the ORR near Abdullapurmet and was proceeding towards Hyderabad-Bengaluru National Highway. When they reached near Pedda Golconda toll gate around 11.30 p.m., the speeding mango-laden truck crashed the maxi truck moving in the same direction. “The 14-ton truck proceeding to Baroda in Gujarat from Nuzividu in Krishna district of AP hit the mini truck from the rear side,” Mr. Venkatesh said.
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“Prima facie it appears to be the result of over speeding. The accused lorry driver might have lost control on the wheel due to sudden sloop. The stretch is bumpy,” the inspector said.
The impact of the accident was such that five of them died on the spot, while three others succumbed while undergoing treatment at 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 (08), Basamma (25) and her three-year-old son Hanumantha.
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This is the first major road accident that took place after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced a lockdown on Monday.
The State has sealed all inter-State borders and the police are not allowing any person or vehicle to cross. The ghastly accident raises several questions on the functioning of police check-posts in the districts, as the ill-fated vehicle managed to reach the outskirts of the State capital, despite ‘night curfew’ from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.
A case under Section 304-A (Causing death by negligence) of IPC was registered against the truck driver Dileep, who fled from the spot. Meanwhile, Suryapet police booked DRMS Road Engineering Company under Section 304-II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC for allowing their workers to travel during the lockdown period.