SUV jumps median, collides with truck; three killed

Three members of a family were killed while six were injured in a gruesome accident involving an SUV and two trucks on the busy Kempegowda International Airport Road in Chikkajala on Friday.

The deceased are Ashwath Babu (40), the SUV owner and driver, his uncle Muniraju (64) and Muniraju’s son Prashanth (33), all natives of Andiganala in Shidlaghatta and agriculturists.

The injured have been identified as Nagaraj, Darshan, Ganapathi, Manikam, Bharath Yadav and Fareham. While Nagaraj, Darshan and Ganapathi were travelling in the SUV, Manikam and Yadav were in one truck.

Fareham was in the other truck which collided with a courier vehicle. The injured have been shifted to MS Ramaiah Hospital and another private hospital and are out of danger.

The accident occurred around 1.05 pm on the Hunusamaranahalli flyover when the deceased along with three other relatives (Nagaraj, Darshan and Ganapathi) in their SUV were heading towards Sparsh Hospital where Muniraj’s younger brother Narayanswamy was in a critical state after being injured in an accident in Andiganala on Thursday. The family are relatives of former minister V Muniyappa, also from Shidlaghatta, sources said.

According to eyewitnesses, the speeding SUV went out of control when one of its front tyres burst. It hit the median and bounced on to the other side of the road and collided with the courier vehicle head on.

Another truck following the courier vehicle collided with it from behind.

“I heard a strange noise. The SUV had hit the median and entered the opposite side. A courier truck heading towards the airport collided with the SUV,” Jayaprakash, an eye-witness told DH.

A few motorists rushed to the victims’ help and informed the police. They pulled out four of the injured from the SUV and one from the last truck that hit the courier vehicle. They could not pull out two front seat passengers of the SUV and the courier vehicle driver.

Traffic police used a crane to separate two mangled vehicles. By then, the two people in the SUV had died, the police said. Their bodies were then shifted to Yelahanka government hospital. Deceased Muniraju’s son Prashanth died later at the hospital.

“The courier vehicle driver was fortunate to have survived. He was stuck between the seat and steering wheel of his vehicle while his legs were in the collided SUV. It took about half an hour to rescue him,” said Jayaprakash.

Chikkajala traffic police registered a case and have seized the vehicles.

Traffic jam
Traffic came to a halt on the busy flyover following the accident. It took close to two hours for the police to clear the mangled vehicles from the road. Vehicles beneath the flyover piled up beyond Hebbal flyover.