Hyderabad: Five persons from Hyderabad, including a 10-year-old girl were killed, and six sustained injuries in an accident on NH 40 in Kadapa district on Wednesday. The mishap occurred in Duvvuru village when the mini bus they were travelling in rammed a parked tractor.
Police said that the driver of the mini bus had been driving for over 600 kms without rest when he lost control of the vehicle and hit the parked tractor.
The deceased were identified as G. Venkateshwarlu (39), his son G. Sai Yojit (10), residents of Uppal, A. Akshith Kumar (60) resident of Karmanghat, Ch Dhanalakshmi (43) from Vanasthalipuram and A. Greeshma (10) from Ibrahimpatnam.
According to police, the mini bus (TS 08UA 0533) was hired from Hyderabad for a five-day tour covering Bengaluru, Coorg, Mysuru and Tirupati. On Tuesday morning, they reached Tirupati and started back to Hyderabad in the night. The driver, Bhanu, said that he badly needed some rest as he had been driving continuosly from Coorg. The passengers, however, told him to keep driving since they had to reach Hyderabad by morning to attend office.
Around 15 kilometers before the accident occured, the group had stopped near a petrol pump for refreshment where the driver managed to sleep for around 20 minutes. But the passengers again pressured him to start the journey.
The tractor driver had parked his vehicle by the side of the road. The mini bus driver failed to notice it and rammed the vehicle into it. Bhanu escaped unhurt in the accident.
