Six of B'luru family killed as container truck crushes car

NT Correspondent

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 have been identified as Chandrayagappa Gaul (48), Gaurabai (42), Vijayalakshmi (36), John (16), Deeksha (12), and Arya (6), police sources said. A traffic jam was witnessed stretching about 10 kilometres on both carriageways of the highway after a container truck overturned 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 a private 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. As the truck fell on it, the car was badly mangled and the bodies were dismembered, a police officer said. Due to the accident, vehicular traffic was badly hit on National Highway 48.

Bengaluru Rural Superintendent of Police CK Baba said that 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 firm owner, his wife and two children along 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 the hospital. Traffic had to be stopped for some time to clear the fallen container and the car. The container truck driver also sustained serious injuries and has been admitted to a hospital,” he said.

The driver of the container truck, 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 toppled. I don’t know what happened after that.”