PALAKKAD: Two bikers and a car passenger were killed and six others seriously injured when the driver of a goods truck lost control due to brake failure and caused a pile-up involving seven vehicles at Kuthiran on the Palakkad-Thrissur stretch of the NH at 6.50am on Thursday. The deceased are Nikhil, 28, of Manjapra in Vadakkenchery and Vijesh Varma, 24, of Koprathara, Pullikootam and Shobin, 35, of Kalamassery.
The injured were admitted to various hospitals in Thrissur. Traffic on the stretch was disrupted for many hours.The truck, which was carrying poultry manure from Tamil Nadu to Thrissur, first hit the motorcycle on which Nikhil and Vijesh were travelling.
It later rammed a tempo traveller and two pick-up vans before crushing the car. It later hit a tanker lorry and stationary container lorry before coming to a halt. One pick-up van overturned in the impact of the collision. The car got trapped underneath the goods truck and its mangled remains had to be cut to take out the passengers. Two of them were rescued.
Police, fire force, and local residents worked for one-and-a-half hours to complete the rescue operations. Earthmovers were pressed into service to remove the mangled remains of the car from the road.Thrissur city police commissioner R Aditya, Thrissur city Assistant Commissioner V K Raju and Peechi station house officer Shukoor led the rescue operations. The state government had announced recently that one tunnel on the stretch would be opened this month to ease the traffic.