5 killed as car collides with lorry in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: In a spine-chilling incident, five youth who belong to Andhra Pradesh and were working here in private companies were killed after the car in which they were travelling collided with a tipper lorry around 3 am on Sunday morning at Wipro circle in Hyderabad. The victims were identified as Katragadda Santosh (25), a techie working with Tech Mahindra, Chinta Manohar (23), an animation designer, Kolluru Pavan Kumar (24) and Nagisetty Roshan (23), both working for private firms and Pappu Bhardwaj (20).

The victims were staying at Maruthi Mens' hostel at Ayyappa Society in Madhapur. R Srinivas, inspector of Gachibowli PS, said that the victims were returning home after partying. According to police the CCTV footage showed that around 2:50 am, a white coloured Maruti Swift car coming from IIIT driven by Santosh and going towards Gowlidoddi jumped the red light at Wipro circle and at the same time, a tipper vehicle coming from Kokapet side and going towards IIIT, rammed into the car at the traffic junction.

When the police reached the spot all that they could see was an overturned tipper and mangled car. The impact of the crash was so huge that four persons died on spot and another died while undergoing treatment at a hospital. Another team also reached the spot in the morning and are investigating the issue.

Their families have been informed about the accident and once they arrive the bodies will be handed over to them for final rites. The Gachibowli Circle Inspector said that they are investigating the case to find out whether the accident took place due to human error or if any other technical issues were involved in it.

"We have also checked the tipper vehicle and have collected the blood samples of the lorry driver to see if there was any alcohol consumption," the Inspector said. However, the samples of the dead were not checked yet for alcohol consumption.

The driver of the tipper has been booked under Section 304(A) of IPC and is detained for further questioning, the Inspector added.