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Temple trip turns tragic: Five Bengaluru friends killed as SUV flips seven times near Doddaballapur
The accident occurred near Makali village while they were heading to a temple, attributed to reckless driving and misjudgment during overtaking.
A morning pilgrimage turned into a devastating tragedy for a group of friends from Bengaluru when their SUV overturned multiple times, killing five of the eight occupants on board. The fatal accident occurred on a narrow stretch near Makali village in the Doddaballapur region of Chikkaballapura district, reported The Times of India
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The group, comprising elderly and middle-aged men from the city, had rented a Toyota Innova to visit the Shri Bheemeshwara Temple near Manchenahalli. Their journey, which began with spiritual intent, ended abruptly around 10:45 am when the vehicle met with a horrific crash while navigating a curved section of the state highway.
How did the accident happen?
According to the report, the driver, 50-year-old Narasimha Murthy, attempted to overtake a truck on the two-lane road. As a bus approached from the opposite direction, Murthy reportedly swerved sharply to the left in a bid to avoid a head-on collision. The maneuver caused the vehicle to veer out of control, flipping over at least seven times before coming to a halt. Several passengers were thrown out of the vehicle due to the force of the impact.
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Five men, Narasimha Murthy (50), Eshwarappa (75), DN Kalappa (69), Purushottam (62), and Gopinath (52), died on the spot. Three others, identified as Kumara (50), Srinivas (55), and Narayanappa (60), sustained serious injuries and are undergoing treatment, the report further said.
The victims were part of a tightly-knit circle of friends who often walked together in their neighbourhood. Most of them were retired or semi-retired professionals, farmers, weavers, and small-time businessmen, who had planned the trip as a religious outing.
Local police, who responded quickly to the scene, have attributed the crash to reckless overtaking on a dangerously narrow and curved stretch of road. Preliminary investigations suggest that the combination of speeding, misjudgment while overtaking, and the presence of oncoming traffic contributed to the loss of control.
