Two accidents claim 15 lives

Fifteen people were killed in separate accidents in Belgaum and Tumkur districts on Sunday.

Nine people, including five women, were killed and 10 injured in an accident involving several vehicles on National Highway-4 near Vantmuri Ghat in Belgaum on Sunday. Six of them were killed on the spot.

The accident occurred when the driver of a mini lorry (canter), which was transporting two-wheelers from Belgaum to Kolhapur, lost control of the vehicle and it hit the road divider. It then rammed a bike, a car and a mini truck on the opposite lane and toppled.  

The deceased are Padma Ashok Doddamani (40), wife of a head constable in the Shahpur police station, Malu Krishna Krishnapagol (43), Indumati Mahadev Poojar (55), all residents of Rajaram Nagar in Udyambagh, Belgaum, Vijay Kanorkar (32) and his wife Smita Vijay Kanorkar (27), all residents of Mache, Pradeep Shivabasappa Karoshi (20), a resident of Tilakwadi, Abhijit Anant Devan (28), Kamala Komal Katakakugol (45) and Renuka Poojary.

The injured have been admitted to the district hospital and KLE hospital in Belgaum. Of them, Gangamma Yellapurkar has suffered head injuries and is said to be in a critical condition. Raju Godke, an eyewitness, said, “I used a victim’s cellphone to inform the families, we also helped the police shift the injured to the hospital,” he said.

According to the police, the accident occurred due to the rash and negligent driving by the driver of the mini lorry.

Those travelling in the mini truck were returning to Belgaum after participating in Ganesha festivities at Sankeshwar in Hukkeri taluk. The Kakti and Yamakanamaradi police rushed to the spot. They had a tough time managing the traffic on the highway. The police have arrested the canter driver and cleaner, who have also sustained injuries.

Kunigal crash

Six people of a family were killed and two were injured when the car in which they were travelling hit a fence on the side of the road and then fell off the bridge on National Highway-48, near Chotnahalli village in Kunigal taluk of Tumkur district on Sunday afternoon.

The deceased are Pushpalatha, 25, her husband Manjunath, 36, Anitha, 26, her husband Srinivas, 37, and their  children - Preetham, four, and an eight-month-old son. Pushpalatha’s son Supreeth, 6, and Vinutha 20, a relative, are the injured. They are undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kunigal. While Srinivas died in a private hospital in Nelamangala, the others breathed their last on the spot.

Sisters Pushpalatha and Anitha had been to their parents’ house at Maragur in Bagur of Chennarayapatna (Hassan district) along with their families. The incident occurred when they were returning to Bangalore. Police said that the car was being driven at high speed and the driver lost control and hit a fence and the vehicle fell into a 35-foot  gorge.

The post-mortem of five bodies was conducted at Kunigal government hospital, while another body is still to be released by the private hospital. 

The sisters and their husbands are said to be employees of Gokaldas Images, a garments factory at Yeshwantpur in Bangalore. While people in Chotnahalli helped in shifting the injured to the hospital, some miscreants are alleged to have robbed the victims of valuables.