8 engineering students from Tamil Nadu killed in Kerala car crash

THRISSUR: Eight engineering students from Tamil Nadu were killed after their car rammed into a goods truck parked on National Highway-66 in Thrissur district of Kerala around midnight on Friday.

Police have registered an FIR against the absconding truck driver for culpable homicide under Section 105 of the BNS, as he had allegedly parked the vehicle illegally on the under-construction stretch of the NH at Panambikkunnu Centre in Kaipamangalam.

The victims were students of PSNA College in Dindigul.

V Viswa of Salem was behind the wheel at the time.

The rest of the students were identified as I Suriya, Jeeva N, and K Yuvasanjith of Dindigul, and G Santhosh, R Prasanna, Joshua Hilson J and M Muralikrishnan M of Madurai – all aged around 20.

As per preliminary information, the car heading from Guruvayur towards Kodungallur was speeding. The FIR states that the truck was parked on the right side of the highway near a barricaded stretch where traffic had been diverted due to ongoing construction work. Viswa allegedly failed to notice the barricade and crashed into the truck.

The impact wrecked the car, forcing rescuers to cut open the vehicle to retrieve its eight occupants.

All eight engineering students are believed to have died on the spot. People sleeping inside one of the three goods trucks reportedly parked on the roadside alerted passersby, following which police and fire and rescue personnel rushed to the spot.

Women break down after seeing the bodies of their sons killed in the Kaipamangalam road accident, at Thrissur GMCH on Saturday.

Preliminary probe indicates that lorry driver is at fault

The bodies were shifted to a private hospital in Kodungallur for further procedures. Hospital authorities have arranged ambulances to transport the bodies to their respective native places.

Using student ID cards recovered from the site, Kaipamangalam police contacted their families, some of whom were unaware of their sons’ trip to Kerala. Santhosh’s relatives told the police that he had recently purchased a car and that the group had planned a trip to Kochi. As the registration of the car was not complete, they had hired a rented vehicle for the trip.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is facing questions over alleged safety lapses after ambulance driver Shahul, one of the first to reach the accident site, along with accounts from residents, pointed to inadequate safety arrangements on the highway. Residents alleged that there were no warning boards at the site before the accident and that a board was installed only after the crash.

Footage reportedly recorded by the students inside the car shortly before the accident has also emerged. The NHAI has pointed out that the students had not informed college authorities about their trip and that the car was travelling at high speed.

Meanwhile, district police chief Mohammed Nadeemuddin said the lorry driver was absconding, but the vehicle owner had been identified, and the driver would be apprehended soon. A preliminary probe indicates that the lorry driver is at fault. “It is definitely a mistake on the part of the lorry driver,” he told reporters.

A special investigation team will probe the accident, while the district collector has sought an explanation from the NHAI project director.

Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Saturday expressed condolences to the families of the deceased. The state government sent five officials to Thrissur to expedite the procedures to bring their bodies home. The CM thanked the Kerala government for helping send the bodies to Tamil Nadu in ambulances.