17 killed in road mishap near Udupi in Karnataka

In a ghastly road accident, at least seventeen people were killed and more than 20 others were injured when a maxi-cab carrying them collided with a speeding private bus on the national highway at Muloor near Udupi in coastal Karnataka yesterday.

Police said the ill-fated maxi-cab was packed to capacity, carrying a marriage party, and was proceeding towards Muloor when a private bus speeding towards Mangalore on Monday morning collided with it.

The dead included seven children, nine women and a man. “Almost all the passengers of the maxi-cab were women and children belonging to Muslim community”, police said. The impact of the collision was so intense that the bodies and belongings of the passengers had been scattered all around the mangled remains of the maxi-cab.

Senior police officers rushed to the accident spot, which is about 20 kms from Udupi, to supervise the rescue operation. While the injured were admitted to a hi-tech hospital at Udupi, the dead bodies were sent to the Government hospital for a post-mortem.

Police officials fear that the death toll could mount as many among the 20 persons injured were in a critical condition. The authorities are also finding it difficult to identify the deceased as well as the injured as the maxi-cab was a private vehicle with no log records available.

Traffic on the highway was blocked for several hours after the accident on Monday morning. Police said the mishap had taken place at a time when it was drizzling and the road had become slippery.

Meanwhile, locals protested against the authorities for their failure to pay attention to the slippery stretch of national highway 17 near Muloor that had become a death-trap. For, it was only a few days ago seven people had died near Hejamadi on the same highway in a collision between a bus and a tanker.