Eight killed in separate road accidents

Eight people were killed in two separate accidents in Shimoga and Ramanagar districts Thursday night.

Four men, including two brothers, were killed and two seriously injured, when the car in which they were travelling fell into a 30-foot pit on the roadside at Kenchanaguppe Gate near Bidadi (on the Bangalore-Mysore highway) Thursday night. 

The deceased are Lohith, 22, his brother Kiran, 24, Bharath Kumar, 22, of Sugganahalli and Bhairappa, 20, of Boramaranadoddi. Naveen (who was driving the car) and Purushottam were seriously injured in the accident and have been admitted to BGS Hospital near Kengeri.

Purushottam was seated in the front seat and the others in the back seat. They were on their way to the petrol bunk at Mayaganahalli to buy diesel for a crane used for construction work at Sugganahalli.

As they approached Mayaganahalli, they saw Bhairappa, Kiran’s colleague at the Toyota Kirloskar company, waiting for a bus to travel to the factory for the night shift.

The group offered to drop Bhairappa, who sat in the back seat. As the speeding car approached Kenchanaguppe Gate, Naveen lost control over the vehicle and it fell into the pit. The posterior of the car was completely damaged.

Lohith, Kiran and Bhairappa were killed on the spot. The severely injured Kumar, Naveen and Purushottam were rushed to a nearby private hospital, where Kumar was declared brought dead. Naveen and Purushottam were shifted to BGS Hospital. Their condition is said to be critical.

The post-mortem of the dead was conducted at Rajarajeshwari Hospital and the bodies were handed over to their families.

Bidadi police have registered a case.

Family tragedy

In the other incident, four persons, including three members of a family, drowned when their car fell into a roadside open well near Kaspadi village in Sagar taluk of Shimoga district on National Highway-206 in the wee hours of Saturday.

The deceased are Goutham Roy, 45, an employee with the postal department in Mysore, his wife Urmila Roy, 38, their daughter Usuri Roy, 12 and the car driver Fairoz Khan, 38. They were heading to Goa on a holiday from Mysore.

The incident occurred when the driver lost control of the car, while negotiating a curve. Fire personnel lifted the vehicle from the well. The Sagar rural police have registered a complaint.