2 burnt to death strapped to seats as car catches fire after collision in Andhra

Two persons were burnt alive strapped to their seats and three others escaped with injuries when a car in which they were travelling collided with an electric pole and caught fire in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district on Thursday morning, the police said.

The incident happened at around 7 am Mallisala village of Jaggampet block on the national highway (NH16) when five members of a family were returning from Gokavaram town in East Godavari district to Visakhapatnam, East Godavari SP Adnan Nayeem Asmi said.

The deceased were identified as Veerni Hanumanth Rao (56) of Bukka Street near fishing harbour in Visakhapatnam city and Mattu Sateesh (41) of Fazillabad village of Devipatnam block in East Godavari district.

Three other members of Hanumantha Rao’s family - Veerni Rama Devi, Mannem Bhanu and Mannem Adithya - escaped with injuries. The injured were shifted to Jaggampet government hospital for treatment, the SP said.

Preliminary enquiries by the police revealed that Sateesh, who was driving the car, lost control over the steering wheel and collided with an electric pole. “As a result of the impact of the collision, live power lines fell on the vehicle and it caught fire within seconds,” the police official said.

Rao and Sateesh, who were wearing seat belts, could not escape from engulfing flames and were burnt alive. The other three in the back seat quickly came out and managed to save themselves, though they, too, sustained minor burn injuries.

Jaggampeta inspector of police V Suresh Babu and his team, along with fire tenders, rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire. The police shifted the injured to the Jaggampet government hospital. “Investigation is going on,” the SP said.