Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Four killed in highway accident

Gruesome reminder: The mangled remains of the van which collided with a KSRTC bus at Kochulloor, killing four of its occupants.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Four persons were killed and 23 others injured when a tempo van carrying tourists from Chitoor in Andhra Pradesh rammed into a KSRTC bus near Kochulloor on NH 47 on Monday.

The deceased were identified as Manikantan, 30, a native of Nagriputupetta in Chitoor district, Mani, 44, and driver of the tempo van, Dorai from Chethilapattai. Prakash, 35, who was shifted to the ICU of the medical college hospital, succumbed to his injuries later in the day.

The other 13 tourists were admitted to the medical college hospital and the condition of three was stated to be serious. All the tourists were either neighbours or family friends. Driver of the bus K.V. Rajan and conductor Vijayakumar were among the 10 persons in the bus who sustained minor injuries.

According to the traffic police, the gruesome incident took place around 6.25 a.m. in front of a private eye clinic. The van with 17 tourists that was coming from Kochi to the capital city enroute to Kanyakumary collided with the KSRTC bus that was going from Neyyattinkara to Guruvayur.

The police had to seek the assistance of Fire and Rescue Services to extricate the bodies and the injured from the mangled remains of the van. According to the police, the driver of the KSRTC bus stopped the vehicle on seeing the van coming at a high speed. The van rammed into the right side of the bus and was completely destroyed.

A senior traffic official said over-speeding by the driver of the van led to the accident on a stretch that was virtually empty at that time. The traffic police recovered a bottle of liquor from the vehicle and was also looking into whether the driver of the van was drunk. Traffic along NH 47 was affected for 30 minutes.

City Police Commissioner Ravada A. Chandrasekhar, Assistant Commissioners, Traffic, P. Mohanan Nair and K.S. Sreekumar, and circle inspector, Medical College, Suresh Kumar supervised the rescue works. The traffic police have registered a case. The bodies were kept at the mortuary of the Medical College Hospital.

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