KENDRAPARA: In a deadly crash, four persons of a family including a couple were killed and two others sustained critical injuries after the ambulance in which they were travelling rammed into a stationary oil tanker at Thellagundla within Thavanampalle police limits in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district on Friday.
The deceased were identified as Umesh Chandra Sahoo (46), his wife Rasmita (45), Tirlochan Nayak (63) and Bijay Nayak (56), all residents of Gobindapur village within Pattamundai police limits in Kendrapara district. The two drivers of the ill-fated ambulance suffered grievous injuries and have been admitted to a hospital in Chittoor.
Sources said the mishap took place during the wee hours on Chittoor-Tirupati highway. The ambulance was returning from Bengaluru when it crashed into the tanker parked along the highway. The impact of the collision was so severe that the front portion of the ambulance was completely mangled.
On hearing the loud sound of the crash, nearby residents rushed to the spot and pulled out the six occupants from the mangled ambulance. Station house officer of Thavanampalle police station Sudhakar Reddy said four of them died on the spot after suffering serious head injuries. The two injured drivers are undergoing treatment in a local hospital. Police have seized both the vehicles and detained the driver of the oil tanker.
Sources said Umesh was suffering from kidney disease for the last two years. He was undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Bhubaneswar. The doctors had referred him to a private hospital in Bengaluru for further treatment. Umesh along with his wife and other family members had gone to Bengaluru on Wednesday in an ambulance. However, doctors of the Bengaluru hospital turned him away. The family was returning from Bengaluru when the mishap took place, said Umesh’s brother Ganesh Sahoo.