Eight engineering students from Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, have been killed after their vehicle hit the rear of a parked lorry on NH-66 in Thrissur district in Kerala, police said on Saturday.
This accident occurred at Panambikkunnu in Kaipamangalam around 11.40 pm on Friday. The students were on their way from Guruvayur to Kodungallur, when their car hit the Maharashtra-registered lorry.
The lorry had allegedly been illegally parked on the right side of the highway near a diverted part of the road due to construction work and traffic creating barricades.
The driver was said to be driving at speed and had not taken the diversion barricade on, when they hit the back of the lorry that was stopped.
A total of six students were killed at the scene of the accident and two others were pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The students hailing from an engineering college in Dindigul were on their way to Kodungallur on NH-66. Police have identified six of the deceased as Surya, Yuvasanjith, Vishva, Johua, Santhosh and Prasanna. The four was from Dindigul while Santhosh and Prasanna were from Madurai. Identities of two of those other victims have still not been confirmed.
Residents, fire and rescue and police teams were involved in the rescue operation to extricate the victims from the damaged car. Later the bodies were taken to the mortuary at Thrissur Medical College.
Registration of a case against the lorry driver under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for causing and allowing the death of a person has been registered by Kaipamangalam police. After the incident, the driver fled the scene, and is alleged to continue to be an absconding person, according to police.
Authorities called on other families by phone or via student ID cards found in the bodies. Some families were allegedly not informed that their children had gone to Kerala, police said.