RAMANATHAPURAM: Five persons, including four Sabarimala pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh — were killed and seven others injured after a speeding car crashed into a parked vehicle on the East Coast Road near Keelakarai in the early hours of Saturday.
According to the police, a car (AP 40 FK 5781) carrying five men from Vizianagaram district, who were returning from Sabarimala, had been halted on the roadside around 1.50 am with its occupants asleep inside. Another vehicle (TN 65 BA 9000), driven by Mustak Ahammed (34) of North Street, Keelakarai, allegedly came at high speed and crashed into the parked car.
Ramanathapuram SP G Chandeesh told TNIE that preliminary inquiry pointed to overspeeding and negligent driving by Mustak as the cause of the crash.
Police sources said the collision left four persons dead on the spot who were identified as car driver Mustak and three of the Andhra Pradesh pilgrims identified as Ramachandra Rao (35), Appavu Naidu (35) and Bandara Chandru Rao (45). The remaining pilgrims, Ramu (60) and Sri Ram (40), were rushed to the Ramanathapuram Government Medical College Hospital, where Ramu succumbed to injuries later in the night, taking the toll to five.
Six others travelling in the Keelakarai-bound car — Frizhar (20), Thivyan (19), Praveen (19), Jameel Rahman (15), Madeswaran (critical) and Harshath (32) — sustained multiple injuries and are undergoing treatment.
The bodies have been sent for post-mortem. Keelakarai police have registered a case and launched an investigation.