Mini truck mows down four Holi revellers

Holi turned tragic for families of four persons who were killed on the spot after the motorbike they were riding collided head-on with a mini truck coming from the opposite direction near Kamalnagar town in Aurad taluk in the district.

According to police, the victims hail from the neighbouring Udgir town in Maharashtra. They have been identified as Madhav Vardale (18) and Umesh Patil (22) of Hanuman Nagar; Digambar Ghatode (30) of Bidar Gate area, and Santosh Gaikwad (30) from Datta Nagar.
The four were heading towards Marur village in Bhalki taluk to celebrate Holi with their friends. While negotiating a sharp curve at Kamalnagar, their motorcycle hit the mini truck, sources said.

The scene of the accident was horrific as three of the four victims came under the front wheels of the mini truck, while one of the pillion riders was thrown a few metres away from the vehicle due to the impact of the collision.

Traffic hit

Traffic movement was hit as vehicles remained stranded for hours on both directions on the busy stretch of the inter-state highway.  Later, senior police personnel attached to Kamalnagar police station, Circle Inspector M S Mulla, Inspector Dilip Sagar and ASI Basavaraj Srigeri rushed to the spot and made arrangements to shift the bodies to the Primary Health Centre at Kamalnagar, and cleared the road.

It is the first road mishap of this scale in 2015. Several such incidents have been reported from the accident spot about one km from Kamalnagar in the past.