Car flies off flyover in Hyderabad, kills one

A speeding car flew off a tall serpentine flyover in the IT zone of the city here on Saturday and on a bus stop down below, killing one and injuring three, including the driver of the car.

The deceased, a 40-year old woman named Sathyaveni, and her daughter Praneetha were waiting for an auto under the flyover when the car fell on them.

The CCTV footage showed the car falling on a tree and then on the road.

Praneetha and two men identified as Balaraju and Kubra sustained serious injuries and were rushed to the Care Hospital at Hitech City. The body of Sathyaveni was shifted to Osmania General Hospital for postmortem. The car also damaged two other cars moving under the flyover.

As it fell from the flyover, the car turned turtle before touching the ground and got completely mangled.

Police said it was zipping past at a speed between 100 and 120 km at the time of the accident. Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar inspected the accident spot. Police believe that there is an engineering defect in the flyover design.

The 990-meter long uni-directional flyover that was opened on 3 November has deep curves making manoeuvring difficult at high speed. People have complained on social media about the defective design.

City Mayor B Rammohan announced Rs 5 lakh ex gratia to the kin of the deceased. The Mayor announced that the flyover would be closed for three days to take speed control measures. “This government has love for commissions and no love for the safety of the people. The bridge is dangerously curvy leading to accidents,” BJP MLA Raja Singh Lodh said.

This isn't the first accident that the flyover has witnessed. The first accident took place on 10 November a week after the inaugural. Two youths died on the spot and four others sustained injuries when a techie driving in an inebriated condition, rammed his car into a stationary bike on the side of the flyover.