GUNTUR: Five people, including two children, died when a speeding car rammed a stationary lorry from behind on NH-16 at NTR Centre in Chilakaluripet in the early hours of Monday. Chilakaluripet urban CI V Suryanarayana said the mishap occurred while a group of 11 pilgrims from Sabbevaripet in Palacole Mandal of West Godavari district, who went to Tirumala on June 28, were returning home.
Tirumala Naga Venkateswara Rao (32), his wife Surya Bhavani (24), and their daughter Sonakshi (6), and son Geeteshwar (5), and Bhavani’s younger brother K Anodh Kumar (20) died on spot in the incident. Venkateswara Rao’s relatives K Sai, T Sai Tulasi, G Durga Sailaja, T Anantha Lakshmi, T Manikanta and T Tejeswari suffered injuries in the incident and they were admitted to a private hospital in Guntur.
On hearing the news of accident, Narasaraopet DSP D Rama Varma rushed to the spot and oversaw relief operations. It took a few hours to extricate the bodies of the victims from the car which crashed into the lorry. A JCB was pressed into service to detach the mangled remains of the car. The police suspect that Venkateswara Rao who was driving the car, might have dozed off, which resulted in the mishap.The bodies were shifted to Chilakaluripet area hospital for postmortem. The police registered a case.