16 killed as bus, van collide near Tumkur

Van driver was allegedly talking on phone when mishap occurred

The deceased, who were mostly labourers and vegetable vendors, hailed from places in and around Gubbi and were on their way to Tumkur.

The commercial transport vehicle was completely damaged due to  the impact of the collision.

The bus was on its way to Shimoga from Tumkur. The driver of the Tempo Trax was allegedly driving the vehicle on the wrong side of the road and was talking on his mobile phone when the incident occurred.

The deceased included Tempo Trax driver Sudhir (32) of Heggare, conductor Sugganahalli Shivanna (45) from Sugganahalli in Magadi taluk, Somashekhar (23), a vegetable vendor from Kadehalli in Turuvekere taluk, Jayalakshmamma (35) of Subhash Nagar in Gubbi, Lakshmamma (30) from Somlapura, Hanumantha Raju (28), a vegetable vendor from Tyagatur, Nagaraj (24) from Katigenahalli, Narasimhamurthy (30), Vijaykumar (28), a construction worker from Bellavi in Tumkur taluk, Ratnamma (40) of Ankasandra, Krishnamurthy (30) of Nagasandra, Siddaramaiah (30) of Shettikere in Chikkanaya-kanahalli taluk, Mohiddin (26) of Lingammanahalli, Shivagangamma (40) from Varadenahalli and Pramod (19) of Nandihalli.

A compensation of Rs 50,000 each will be provided by the KSRTC to the next of kin of the deceased.

Eight passengers travelling in the Tempo Trax have survived the accident with injuries. Two of them are said to be in serious condition.

The driver of the bus has fractured his leg in the accident.

Accidents are becoming common on this stretch of the National Highway. Two students of the Siddartha Medical College had died in an accident at the same spot on Saturday.