A parent of a victim breaks down at the Govt Medical Collge Hospital in Thrissur
The driver, Thukaram (33), a native of Sholapur, was reportedly asleep inside the vehicle when the accident occurred.
They said the truck’s parking without adequate warning signals could also have contributed to the accident. The car was completely mangled in the impact. Residents, police and fire and rescue personnel had to cut it open to extricate the victims. All the bodies were shifted to Thrissur Govt Medical College Hospital. The Maharashtra-registered truck had begun its journey from Pune. Sports minister O J Janeesh, Kaipamangalam MLA K K Valsaraj, DCC president Joseph Tajet and former minister K Rajan criticised NHAI over alleged lapses in road safety measures at the construction site.
Thrissur: The police and motor vehicles department on Saturday launched separate probes into the road accident at Kaipamangalam-Panambikunnu in the coastal Thrissur area that claimed the lives of eight people, most of them engineering students from Dindigul in Tamil Nadu. Thrissur rural SP Mohammad Nadeemuddin said the truck driver, who had fled the scene, was taken into custody on Saturday afternoon.
The car carrying the victims rammed a truck parked beside a flyover on the NH 66 stretch, where construction work was under way.
Dr Hitesh Sankar, the forensic expert who supervised the post-mortems, said preliminary findings indicated that the victims died from extensive injuries caused by the high-speed collision, including trauma to the brain, chest and abdomen and multiple limb fractures. “Both limbs of one person, who was probably driving, were traumatically amputated in the accident,” he said. The SP said a special investigation team led by the Kodungallur DSP would probe the accident.
The accident occurred around Friday midnight. Seven occupants died on the spot and the eighth succumbed to injuries while being taken to hospital. Preliminary findings suggested that repeat warning lights and other safety measures prescribed by the Indian Roads Congress for diversions were absent.