Nellore: Five persons including four women were crushed to death under granite stones when the driver of a lorry they were travelling in applied brakes suddenly to avoid a buffalo on the national highway near Chemudugunta, 5 km from here on Friday.
The condition of two other women injured in the incident is stated to be critical. The women victims belong to Chinna Jagarlamudi in Marturu mandal of Prakasam district. Driver Pratap Reddy, who has been detained by the police, and the cleaner and five others travelling in the lorry escaped with minor injuries.
According to information, 11 women belonging to China Jagarlamudi went to Mysore in September to work in a tobacco grading firm. The mishap took place when they are on the way back to home. They came by ttrain from Mysore to Tirupati and boarded the truck laden with granite stones at Renigunta on Friday morning on their way home.
Three others, Pullaiah, Ramanaiah and Polaiah, boarded the truck at Ogili in Nellore district. With this, six women and three men were sitting on the granite stones on the lorry's carriage while five others were in the cabin when the accident occurred.
Locals jumped into action and saved some of the passengers who were buried under the granite stones. Nellore Rural circle inspector Srinivasa Rao and Venkatachalam sub-inspector I. Venkateswar Rao rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to hospitals. Surveypalli legislator Kakani Govardhan Reddy consoled the injured and demanded that the government pay ex-gratia to the kin of the deceased. The deceased have been identified as Rama Devi 40, Veera-lakshmi 30, Nagendramma 40, Subbayamma 30 and Pullaiah 60. The critically injured, Malleswari, Hym-avathi, Polaiah and Ram-anaiah, have been shifted to the government hospital in Nellore.
