BENGALURU: Six members of a family were crushed to death after a container truck fell on their car in a serial accident near T Begur in Nelamangala on the Tumakuru highway on Saturday. Two cars, two trucks and a school bus were involved in the accident.
The deceased were identified as Chandram Yegappagol (48), Gowribai (42), Deeksha (12), Jnan Yegappagol (16), Vijayalakshmi (36) and Arya (6). Chandram hailed from Morabagi village in Jath taluk, Sangli district of Maharashtra and the family was on its way to Vijayapura to see an ailing relative.
A traffic jam was witnessed stretching about 10 kilometres on the both carrigeways of the highway after a container truck overturned on one of the cars. The police requisitioned heavy cranes to lift the fallen container which was loaded, and moved the crushed car to extricate the bodies.
The family hailed from Vijayapura and were running IAST Software Solutions, an IT company, in HSR Layout, employing about 100 people. The family had bought the car only two months ago and were heading out for a weekend trip to their hometown Vijayapura when the accident occurred.
Bengaluru Rural SP C K Baba said, “The accident occurred about 3-4 km from Begur. The family was residing in HSR Layout in Bengaluru. Due to the Christmas holidays, the IT frm owner, his wife and two chldren alsong with with his sister-in-law and niece were travelling to Vijayapura. The container was coming from the opposite direction when the driver steered to avoid hitting another vehicle and the container truck fell on the Volvo car which was going towards Tumakuru. All the six occupants died on the spot”.
“We extricated the bodies with great difficulty as the complete weight of the container was on the car. The bodies were shifted to hospital. Traffic had to be stopped for some time to clear the fallen container and the car. Now there is slow-moving traffic. The container truck driver also sustained serious injuries and has been admitted to a hospital”, he said.
Chandram had started the software company in 2018. On getting to know about the accident, the shocked employees headed out. Some of the employees said Chandram was good to them and treated everyone equally.
The driver of the container truck, Arif, who hails from Jharkhand, spoke from the hospital bed and said, “I was coming from Dobbspet towards Bengaluru when a car came from the left side ahead of me braked sharply. In trying to save the car, the truck jumped the divider and the toppled. I don’t know what happened after that”.