One student sustained serious injuries and was rushed to a hospital in Hyderabad for treatment
Hyderabad: A student and three of his friends who driving home after his birthday died after their car crashed into a roadside tree at about 2.30 am on Thursday. The car owner, also a student, survived with injuries.
The accident took place near Mirzaguda gate at Vattinagulapalle on the Shankarpalli-Mokila road. Sources said the car was clocking 140 kmph at the time of the accidents. None of the victims were found to be inebriated.
Mokila inspector C. Veera Babu identified the victims as Kargayala Sumith, 20, who had celebrated his birthday and was driving home, Sri Nikhil, 20, Balmuri Rohith, 18, and Devala Surya, 20. While Rohith was studying engineering, the other three were BBA students at a business school.
The injured student, Sunkari Nakshatra, 20, also a final-year BBA student, is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Gachibowli. The car was registered to his name.
Police confirmed that neither the driver nor the passengers were wearing seatbelts at the time of the accident. The airbags appeared to have deployed.
The rear right tyre of the car was found to have burst. It was not clear if this was the reason for the accident, or as a result of the crash.
The five students were returning from the birthday party at a three-star hotel in Kokapet. When they reached near Mokila, the driver lost control, allegedly due to speeding and crashed into a tree on the right side of the road. The impact of the collision left the vehicle badly mangled.
Locals called for an ambulance and alerted the police, who reached the spot and shifted the bodies to the Chevella government hospital.
“For now, it appears to be a case of speeding. So far, no alcohol bottles or drugs have been recovered from the car. We are investigating whether the driver had become drowsy,” inspector Veera Babu said adding that police were awaiting post-mortem reports.
Sumit, a resident of Shankarpally who frequently uses the stretch where the accident occurred, said the road was accident-prone and had witnessed at least one accident every month. “Not all accidents are fatal. This is the most serious accident that has occurred on this road. The streetlights do not work properly at night. A road extension would help greatly,” he said.
A security guard, Yadagiri, who reached the site after of the crash, said, “I heard a loud noise when the car rammed into the tree. The next moment, I saw blood and parts of the vehicle scattered on the road. Locals called for an ambulance, but the four men had died by then. This stretch is accident-prone. At night, visibility is very poor.” Yadagiri was a security guard at an open plot, where private travel buses park.
Another commuter, Samuel, a PhD scholar, said the road was motorable. Deccan Chronicle observed that there were no crash barriers separating the carriageway from roadside vegetation at the spot where the accident occurred.
The funerals of all four students were completed by around 3 pm on Thursday. All the deceased had been residing in paying guest accommodations near Kokapet. There were no pending challans linked to the vehicle found.
