TIRUPATI : Thirteen people died and 20 others were injured when a speeding lorry going towards Nellore ran amok, and ploughed into the people standing on the roadside near a police station on the Tirupati-Srikalahasti road at Yerpedu in Chittoor on Friday.
Driver of the lorry of Venkata Durga Lorry Service was transporting super phosphate and sulfur to Nellore from Tirupati, lost control of the vehicle and veered into a drinking water kiosk beside a police station, killing six people instantaneously.
The speed of the lorry was such that after running over people, it hit an electric pole uprooting it, ran over six two-wheelers, smashed a four-wheeler and rammed through roadside shops, before coming to a halt.
The driver of the lorry, whose identity is yet to be released, seems to have jumped out of the vehicle and disappeared into the crowd. Police are tight-lipped about his whereabouts.
Soon after the vehicle stopped, fire engulfed motorcycles and four people who fell on the ground when hit by the lorry. All the four died and some others sustained burns. The fire, the police said, was caused by the snapped power cables.
The accident spot resembled a war zone with crushed and burnt bodies lying all around amid cries of help from the injured. A few police personnel including Yerpedu sub-inspector Ramakrishna, circle inspector K Sainath and his driver Chandrasekhar also sustained injuries. The sub-inspector suffered a fracture while the CI suffered burns.
Ambulances from Srikalahasti and Tirupati rushed the injured to SVR Ruia Government Hospital in the temple town. Even before the ambulances arrived, some of the injured were shifted to Ruia Hospital in APSRTC buses. Of the 20 injured, the condition of eight is reported to be critical. Four of them were shifted to BIRRD Hospital and another four to SVIMS.
Initially, it was feared that the casualties could be around 20 due to the snapped power cables. . Later, APSPDCL officials, who inspected the spot, denied that electrocution was the cause of more deaths.
Left parties and people’s organisations staged a protest demanding ex gratia of `15 lakh each to the bereaved families. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressed shock over the incident spoke with Chittoor collector Pradyumna. Naidu announced Rs 5 lakh ex gratia to the family members of the victims.