Seven people were killed when the car in which they were travelling rammed into a road divider as driver fell asleep at the wheel, near Kaananakatte village in Jagalur taluk of Davangere district on NH-50 in the wee hours of Friday.
The driver Sanjeev, a Uber driver in Bengaluru, had bought the car only recently. The six others were working as daily-wage workers in Reva University in Bengaluru.
They decided to visit their native places on account of Sankranti festival after seeing tourist spots in Hosapete and Hampi.
They left Bengaluru on Thursday night by car. Sanjeev, who was driving the car, fell asleep around 3 am and the vehicle rammed into road divider around 100 metres from the toll plaza.
The police identified the victims as Mallanagouda (22), Sanjeev (20), Santosh (21), Jai Bhim (18) of Yadgir district, Raghu (23), a resident of Talikoti, Vijayapura district, Siddesh (20) and Vedamurthy (18) of Kudligi taluk of Vijayanagar district.
Siddesh, who was still alive when the accident took place, died on his way to the hospital.
The bodies were shifted to the taluk general hospital in Jagalur town.
The seven youths had moved to Bengaluru to earn their livelihood. With their deaths, their families have lost their breadwinners.
Superintendent of police C B Rishyanth rushed to the spot in the morning.
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