Two children and their mother were killed and 10 others injured when the jeep they were travelling fell in a 20-feet gorge while negotiating the 26th curve on the Tirumala-Tirupati (first ghat) road on Monday. Though minor accidents on the ghat road have become a regular feature, this time the accident turned out to be fatal.
The deceased were identified as Sabitha (29) and her sons Srinivas (9) and Sandeep (7) from Bidar of Karnataka state.
All the injured were rushed to SVR Ruia government general hospital in Tirupati where the condition of two persons including Nagalakshmi from Srikalahasti is said to be critical. Nagalakshmi had been referred to the TTD-run SVIMS hospital.
The remaining eight passengers from Bidar as well as from Srikalahasti, Tiruchanur sustained minor injuries.
In all 12 passengers boarded the jeep (AP 07 T 3894) on their way back to Tirupati and met with the accident. Sabitha and Srinivas died instantly while Sandeep died while undergoing treatment.
The jeep was badly mangled as it fell into the gorge.
Tirupati Urban Additional SP R Umamaheswara Sharma visited the hospital and enquired with the injured about the incident. Later, speaking to media persons, he said that break failure had resulted in the mishap.
However, it was learnt that the jeep driver Yugandhar was in an inebriated condition and lost control over the vehicle.
The bodies were sent to SV Medical College for postmortem. Tirumala police registered a case and took up investigation.