Four devotees of Lord Ayyappa, returning from Kerala’s Sabarimala after the darshan, were killed and 15 others were injured after the mini-truck they were travelling in fell off the road and overturned in Andhra Pradesh’s Bapatla district in the early hours of Monday, the police said.
The accident took place near Jampani village in Vemuru Mandal, they said.
“In all, there were 23 pilgrims. They got down from a train at Tenali early in the morning and hired a Tata Ace mini-truck to reach their village,” a Vemuru police station official.
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The police identified the deceased as Pasham Ramesh (55), B. Panduranga Rao (40), B. Pavan Kumar (25) and Bodina Ramesh (42), all residents of Nilapudi village of Krishna district.
According to the police, the driver lost sight of the road due to dense fog in the area as they reached Jampani village .
Learning about the incident, the police rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to the government hospital in Tenali.
{{/usCountry}}Learning about the incident, the police rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to the government hospital in Tenali.
{{/usCountry}}“The driver was driving the vehicle at a high speed, which skidded off the road and overturned killing three passengers on the spot, while one person died on its way to the hospital,” the police said.
A case of an accident has been registered by the Vemuru police and an investigation into the incident has been launched.