The victims of Sunday’s traffic pile-up on the Bangalore-Mangalore NH-48 near Kunigal were identified as Shivaji Rao (49), his wife Saroja Bai (42) and mother-in-law Susheela Bai (60) of Attiguppe near RPC layout in Bangalore.
They were returning home after a pilgrimage to Dharmasthala when the incident occurred at around 8.45 pm in Chennatimmaiahna Palya at Kunigal bypass.
A Tata Indica had met with an accident involving a tractor. Instead of clearing the road, the drivers started arguing in the middle of the road. A trailing car had to apply sudden brakes, resulting in a sand laden lorry knocking one of the cars which led to a chain of cars crashing, including the Innova in which the victims were.
Nine vehicles were involved in the incident and a case was registered against the lorry driver. Traffic, which was halted for several hours, was cleared after washing off the diesel which had spilled all over the highway, they said.