Hyderabad: Two students of NICMAR College at Shameerpet were fatally run over in a hit-and-run accident while returning to college after seeing off a friend. A speeding pickup van hit the scooter that Pallavi Gupta and Veena Indira were riding, while they were taking a turn from the Rajiv Rahadari highway to a subroad towards the college. Police recovered the CCTV footage and started a hunt to trace the van. The deceased were not wearing a helmet. According to police, Pallavi Gupta, 22, from Kota in Rajasthan and Veena Indira, 22, from Chennai were Advance Construction Management PG students. On Friday night, one of their friends Chiranjeevi Mehta was travelling to Nagpur for vacation and they along with another friend Kushal went to see him off at Kompally.
Veena Indira
Kushal was on his bike (MH 14ET 8431) and the girls were on the scooter (KL 39H 5907). Veena was riding. After they reached Aliyabad X Roads on the highway, they were supposed to take a right turn and enter a lane. A speeding truck coming in the same direction hit the scooter. The impact was so severe that the scooter hit Kushal’s bike that was in the front. The girls were thrown off and fell some 30 ft away and died instantaneously.
Pallavi Gupta
“Initial inquiries found that a truck hit the scooter, but after thorough analysis of CCTV footages, it came out that at the X Roads, a speeding white pickup van overtook the truck from the left and hit the scooter just ahead of the truck, killing both the girls on the spot,” said Shameerpet police station Inspector Mr D. Bhaskar Reddy. The vehicle was spotted in the CCTV footage, but its number was not clearly visible. Kushal, who along with his bike fell on the road, escaped with minor injuries. The vehicles were found damaged at the tail light position. Police also found that the scooter belonged to another student and Veena had borrowed it for the trip.
Cops to write to R&B on Aliyabad junction
The accident spot at Aliyabad X road, which is a junction on the highway, is poorly lit and without signages. The police said they would be writing to the R&B department to take steps to avoid accidents at the spot. As many as five black spots have been identified under the Shamirpet police station on the highway.
In the daytime, Aliyabad X road is busy with vehicles moving in all directions and crossing the road. At night, the road gets busy with vehicles moving towards Hyderabad. Except the two lights with an indicator on both sides of the junction on the median, there is no lighting at the spot.
“Lack of lighting and absence of adequate signages at the spot make it difficult for commuters to notice the junction. This causes accidents at the junction,” said inspector D. Bhaskar Reddy. The junctions at Majidpur X road, Aliya-bad X road, Tehsildar office and Turkapally are vulnerable spots. Earlier, Tumkunta junction was also accident-prone, but after the median was closed, no accidents have occurred there.
