In a ghastly accident six persons, including a newlywed couple, and four other women, died on the spot, after a speeding lorry rammed a mini-bus near Rachagunneri in Srikalahasti Rural mandal on the Srikalahasti-Tirupati road on Saturday evening.
The impact of the collision left the mini- bus badly mangled and one side of the bus got completely ripped off causing serious injuries to the passengers. Death was instant for some of them.
According to the police, the couple, Naresh (25) and Srilekha (23), from Santoshnagar in Karimnagar town, got married on May 20.
They, along with nearly 20 family members, went to Srikalahasti on Saturday and offered prayers to the presiding deity at the temple there. From there they were proceeding to Tirumala when their vehicle met with the accident.
Police, who inspected the accident spot and after questioning the witnesses, said that the lorry driver had completely lost control over the vehicle and veered into the opposite direction and crashed into the mini-bus coming in the opposite direction at a high speed. The lorry dragged the bus for some distance and ripped away the metal body on one side of the bus before coming to a halt.
Six passengers died instantly while seven others suffered serious injuries and were shifted to hospital. Apart from the couple, bridegroom’s mother Narasamma (47), relatives Ojamma (40), Manjula (22) and Nirmala (32) died on the spot. The other occupants of the mini-bus — Tirupati (30), Pochaiah (35), Haritha (24), Malleswari (42), Sarada (25), Santosh (22) and Mallesh (37) — were injured critically and were rushed to a hospital in Tirupati. The bodies were sent to Srikalahasti area hospital for postmortem.
Srikalahasti Rural police registered a case and took up investigation.