5 friends headed to Nagarjunasagar dam crushed to death in Telangana car accident

All the victims were residents of Hyderabad and were headed to the Nagarjunasagar dam.

Five youths were crushed to death when their car rammed into a huge pipeline on the roadside in Telangana’s Nalgonda district on Friday morning, the police said.

Bodies had to be extricated from the car after cutting through its mangled remains. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO/representative)

The incident happened at Dhairyapuri hamlet of Chintapalli block on Hyderabad-Nagarjunasagar state highway at around 5.30 am. While four of the passengers died on the spot, another one died while being shifted to the hospital at Devarakonda block headquarters.

Four of them were identified as Nagendra (28), Rajesh (26), Vemula Bharath (24) and Ganesh (28), the body of the fifth victim is yet to be identified.

Nampally circle inspector Srinivasa Reddy told reporters that all the five were friends from different parts of Hyderabad and they were on their way to Nagarjunasagar irrigation dam, which has been filled to the brim with Krishna river water, attracting tourists.

“We suspect that Nagendra, who was driving the vehicle, might be dozing off and hence lost control over the steering. The speeding car rammed into the huge pipeline belonging to Hyderabad metro water supply and sewerage board that brings drinking water from Krishna river to Hyderabad,” the inspector said.

After hitting the pipeline, the car overturned and fell into the adjacent pit on the road side as a result of which the victims were crushed inside the car.

The local villagers informed the police who rushed there to take up rescue operations. They had to cut through the mangled remains of the car to retrieve the bodies.

“We have shifted the bodies to Devarakonda government hospital for post-mortem. We have registered a case of accident and are investigating,” the inspector said.