Nine women among 11 killed as bus collides with truck in Dharwad

Dharwad: Eleven holidaymakers including nine women travelling to Goa in a mini-bus died when their vehicle collided with a tipper truck in the early hours of Friday in Dharwad district. The accident occurred near Itigatti village at Hubballi-Dharwad bypass. According to Dharwad police, 17 people were travelling in the bus. One of the deceased was Preethi Ravikumar, daughter-in-law of Guru Siddanagouda, former BJP MLA from Davangere's Jagalur. 

Speaking to The Hans India, Dharwad rural police inspector Patil said the accident took place around 7:30 a.m. when the mini-bus collided with the tipper truck. Six of the injured, including the driver of the tipper truck, were shifted to Hubli's KIMS Hospital.

According to the police preliminary report, the group of people from Davangere, who were members of the Ladies Club, were travelling to Goa for a vacation, when the incident occurred. The police said that the women had decided to visit the residence of their friend in Dharwad for breakfast and took a detour. "As of now it seems that the minibus was crossing the Hubbali-Dharwad bypass, when it collided with the tipper truck as there was not enough room on the road to maneouvre, Patil said.

PM Narendra Modi said in a tweet, "Saddened by the loss of lives due to a road accident in Karnataka's Dharwad district. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray for a quick recovery of those injured."

The victims were identified as Asha, Meerabai, Paranjyoti, Rajeshwari, Shakuntala, Usha, Veda, Veena, Manjula, Nirmala, Rajaneesh, Swati and Preethi Ravikumar and driver Praveen.

The 32-km Hubballi-Dharwad bypass is a single lane road between Bengaluru and Pune. Residents of Dharwad have been complaining about the danger posed by the narrow stretch of the bypass.