Two persons were killed and 10 were injured as a van carrying a group of travellers rammed into the back of a loaded lorry parked on the national highway at Karukutty on Tuesday.
The tempo traveller, in which the group of 13 persons were travelling, was torn to pieces with the impact of the collision. Achamma, 56, wife of Kurumath veetil Mathai, South Vazhakulam, and Vipin, 28, the driver of the van, who belonged to Panankudy in Idukki, and son of Palaparambil Varghese, died on the spot.
The police were able to remove the bodies and the injured from the van only with the help of the local people who came to the spot on hearing about the accident.
Out of the injured, Sheeja was the worst injured, and she was taken to a private hospital at Ernakulam; and the rest of the injured were taken to the LF Hospital at Angamaly for treatment.
The travellers in the van were employees from A V T Private Limited, a company near South Vazhakulam; and they were on a pleasure trip to Malampuzha dam. The accident took place at around 5.45 am on the highway near Karukutty check post, around 45 minutes after they started journey from South Vazhakulam.
The lorry into which the van rammed was parked on the highway to change the punctured tyres. The collision was hefty as the lorry was fully loaded, and as the van was on high speed.
The police have registered a case against the lorry workers on finding that it was a sheer mistake on the part of the driver as he had not done anything to give warning for other vehicles.
The lorry was parked on the fast track. The traffic on the highway was interrupted for a couple of hours until both the vehicles were removed from the road using crane. The two bodies were handed over to the concerned families after the postmortem examination.
The funeral of Achamma was held on Wednesday morning at Chembaraki Jacobite Church.
