13 Killed in Chikkaballapur Road Accident

Bengaluru: As many as 13 passengers died, 12 of them on the spot after the car in which they were travelling collided with a parked truck on National Highway-44 near Chitravathi of Chikkaballapur taluk close to Bengaluru city on Thursday at around 7 am. A woman seriously injured in the accident died at a hospital unable to respond to the treatment.

Some of the names of the deceased identified by the police are Narasimhappa, Perumal Pawan Kumar, Shanthamma, Subbamma, Narasimha Murthy, Aruna, Nanjundappa, Naveen Kumar, Padmavathi  and a year old child Rutwik. It is said that the car was from Gorentala in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and were on their way towards Chikkaballapur when they met with an accident.

Chikkaballapur MLA Pradeep Eshwar who visited the spot told reporters that over speeding of the car might have caused the accident owing to poor visibility as thick fog had surrounded the region. The truck driver had parked it to answer nature’s call when the car collided with the truck.

The MLA said he collected details that the car driver had covered Gorentala to Bagepalli in about 20-minutes while at a normal speed it would take about 45-minutes to reach Bagepalli Toll Plaza. Besides, the MLA said, the car driver had no permission to board passengers to ferry them.

He asked the National Highways Authority of India officials to construct a truck terminal to avert such accidents in future and said that he has spoken to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to announce ex gratia for the kith and kin of the deceased.

Responding to the plea of the MLA, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced Rs 2 lakh ex gratia for the deceased families. Superintendent of Police Nagesh and other officials visited the accident spot.