3 killed in accident at Karnataka's Athani

Athani: Three persons were killed on the spot and three others suffered severe injuries in a collision involving a truck, a pickup vehicle, a car and an SUV on the Vijayapur-Sankeshwar road near Banajwad College on the outskirts of the town on Thursday late night.

A truck carrying bricks, which was heading towards Athani, hit a pickup van going towards Kagwad. When the driver and cleaner of the pickup van were crying for help, an SUV passing by stopped and a passenger came to their aid.

The driver of another speeding SUV did not notice the person going to help those inside the pickup van, and ran him over, resulting in the death of the person on the spot along with two others in another SUV. The truck driver and the pickup van driver, who suffered severe injuries, were rushed to hospital for treatment.

The deceased were identified as Mahesh Subhash Gathade (30), a resident of Ganeshwadi village in Shirol taluk in Kolhapur district; Shivam Yuvraj Chouhan (24), a resident of Pundwad village in Shirol taluk; and Sachin Vilas Mali (42), a resident of Kamalapur village in Miraj taluk in Sangli district.