Eight students from an engineering college in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, were killed after the car they were travelling in rammed into a lorry parked on the highway in Kerala’s Thrissur district late Friday night.
The accident took place at Panambikkunnu in Kaipamangalam around 11.40 pm when the speeding car collided with the rear of a Maharashtra-registered lorry. Six students died on the spot, while two others were declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.
The car was completely mangled in the collision. The victims were pulled out of the wreckage during a rescue operation involving local residents, fire and rescue personnel, and the police. Their bodies were later shifted to the mortuary of Thrissur Medical College.
According to police, the lorry had been parked illegally on the right side of the highway near a barricaded stretch where traffic had been diverted due to ongoing construction work on National Highway 66. Reports said the car was travelling from the Guruvayur side towards Kodungallur when the accident occurred.
Five of the deceased — Surya, Yuvasanjith, Joshua, Murali and Jeeva — were from Dindigul, while Santhosh and Prasanna were from Madurai and Vishva was from Salem.
The lorry driver, who went into hiding soon after the accident, has been booked under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for culpable homicide.
“It is definitely a mistake on the part of the lorry driver. An FIR has already been registered. Additionally, regarding the highway authorities and the contractor, we will inspect that as part of the investigation and take strict action,” Thrissur Rural District Police Chief Mohammad Nadeemuddin said.
Local media reports claimed that lorry drivers frequently parked their vehicles on the road and left the spot, making the stretch accident-prone.
Police identified the victims from the student identity cards recovered from the site and contacted their families. Some of the families were reportedly unaware that their children had travelled to Kerala, PTI reported, quoting officials.
A relative told police that Santhosh had recently purchased a new car and that the group had planned a trip to Kochi. However, as the registration of the car was not completed in time, they hired a rented vehicle for the trip.
