Seven people were killed and 18 others injured when a mini-truck which they were travelling in collided with a stationery lorry in Andhra Pradesh’s Palnadu district around midnight on Sunday, the police said.
The incident happened minutes before the labourers were about to reach their destination in Rentachintala town. “All the victims were agricultural labourers belonging to Vadderabavi Colony in the town and they were returning from a pilgrimage to Srisailam temple,” Rentachintala sub-inspector of police Sheik Sameer Basha said.
The deceased have been identified as: Narayanapuram Rosamma (70), Makkena Ramana (50), Annavarapu Kotamma (70), Kuriseti Rama Devi (50), Peddarapu Lakshminarayana (32), Pulipadu Koteshwaramma (60) and Kanala Padma (40).
According to the police, a group of 38 agricultural labourers from Rentachitala town hired a mini-truck and had gone to Srisailam on Saturday and after the darshan of Lord Mallikarjuna Swamy on Sunday morning, they were returning to their town.
“As they were nearing Rentachintala, the driver of the mini truck, apparently in a half-asleep condition, did not notice a lorry-loaded with cement stationed on the road near a stream at an electric substation on the outskirts of the town. The driver lost control and collided with the lorry and the vehicle overturned,” the SI said.
Due to the impact of the collision, some of the labourers in the truck were thrown out of the vehicle and fell on the road, while a few others were crushed under the overturned truck. “Four of them died on the spot and many others sustained injuries,” he said.
Soon after the incident, locals working in the electric sub-station nearby rushed to the spot and rescued the injured and also informed the police. In all, 18 people sustained serious injuries.
“Some of the injured were immediately shifted to a local hospital and others were taken to the government hospital at Gurajala, about 10 km away. Of them, two people died while undergoing treatment,” the police official said.
With the condition of some of them being critical, they were shifted to Guntur General Hospital later. Among them, one woman died on the way, taking the toll to seven.
Gurajala deputy superintendent of police Bezawada Mehar Jayaram Prasad and other senior officials visited the spot and supervised the rescue operations.
Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressed grief over the death of the seven labourers. Expressing condolences to the bereaved families, he asked the state government to extend financial help to the next of kin of the deceased.