Nine persons, including two children, were killed and over 14 injured in a road accident near Kallembella in Sira taluk of Tumakuru district, around 110 km from Bengaluru early on Thursday.
According to the police, the accident occurred when a cruiser tried to overtake a lorry and in the process collided with the latter around 4.30 a.m. on NH 48. The impact of the collision was such that the cruiser overturned. Other travellers rushed to the spot and dragged out people from the severely mangled remains of the vehicle.
The cruiser, which was coming from Raichur to Bengaluru, was overloaded mostly with labourers and their children. As against a capacity of 12, the cruiser had 24 people in it, said Tumakuru Deputy Commissioner Y. S. Patil.
One of the survivors, Shivaraju, 16, told media persons that he was sitting next to the driver and felt a jerk and before he could realise what had happened, the vehicle overturned. All the deceased and injured in the accident are residents of Manvi, Deodurg and other parts of Raichur and were migrating to Bengaluru in search of work.
The dead include four women, four men, and a three-year-old child. This includes the cruiser driver Krishnappa, a mother-son duo Sujatha, 25, and Vinod, 3, Lakshmi, Basamma, Prabhu, and three others, the police said. The injured --- Durgamma, 52, Balaji, 6, Sandeep, 5, Umesh, 28, Yallamma, 25, Anil, 8, Devaraj, 8, Lalitha, 30, Virupaksha, 30, Nagamma, 55, Vaishali, 32, Vasanta, 40, Nagappa, 65 and Shivaraju, 16 --- were shifted to Sira taluk Hospital, Tumakuru district hospital, and two of them who suffered head injuries have been shifted to NIMHANS, Bengaluru. Mr. Patil said at least 14 were injured and they were being treated at various hospitals.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced an ex gratia payment of ₹5 lakh each to the families of the deceased and said that the State government would bear the expenses towards treatment of the injured.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has termed the accident heart-rending and offered condolences to the families who lost their dear ones. He also announced an ex gratia payment of ₹2 lakh each to the families of the deceased and ₹50,000 each to the injured from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
