BENGALURU: A 24-year-old lorry cleaner and 24-year-old labourer were charred to death after a speeding lorry crashed into a parked chemical-laden container at Attibele near RTO check-post in the early hours on Friday.
The deceased are Velu Murugan, the lorry cleaner, a native of Tamil Nadu, and Bilal Sahu, a native of Bihar, a labourer sitting in the container lorry. A senior police officer said the incident occurred around 2.30am and the container loaded with chemical used to polish ceramic material was heading towards Hosur. It was stopped by the RTO officials for a routine check, but the driver had failed to switch on the hazard lights indicator.
Meanwhile, the speeding lorry driven by Velu’s driver Murughanathan (40) rammed the stationary container lorry from the rear. The impact caused an explosion and the lorry caught fire due to the chemical.
The lorry bearing Tamil Nadu registration was completely gutted in the fire and Velu Murugan was charred to death. Bilal who was sitting in the container truck was also charred to death.
“The container bearing Maharashtra registration was seized and the lorry was carrying windmill blades. Attibele police rushed to the spot and shifted the bodies for postmortem. Attibele police have filed a case of negligence against container driver. “If we find any fault of checkpost staff, we will take action against them too,” the Attibele police said.
A police officer said, “Murughanathan told police that he was unable to notice the container because it was dark and he got down from the lorry soon after the mishap. Within a few minutes fire broke out on the left side where Velu was sitting and the door was jammed. He was trapped in fire before Murughanathan tried to alert passers-by. Murughanathan also told that the staff at the check post did not come to his help. The driver of the container managed to escape when the fire broke out.”