Eight engineering students from Tamil Nadu were killed in the early hours of Saturday when their car collided with a parked lorry on National Highway 66 in Kerala’s Thrissur district. Police confirmed that six of the students died at the scene, while two others were declared dead upon arrival at a nearby hospital.
The accident occurred at approximately 11:40 p.m. on Friday at Panambikkunnu in Kaipamangalam. The victims were students of an engineering college in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, and were travelling from Guruvayur towards Kodungallur.
Police have identified six of the deceased. Four of them, Surya, Yuvasanjith, Vishva and Johua, were from Dindigul, while Santhosh and Prasanna were from Madurai. The identities of the other two victims are yet to be confirmed.
The car, bearing a Tamil Nadu registration, crashed into the rear of a stationary Maharashtra-registered lorry. Authorities said the lorry was illegally parked on the right side of the highway near a barricaded section where traffic had been diverted due to ongoing construction work.
An initial investigation suggested the car was travelling at high speed and the driver apparently failed to notice the diversion barricade before hitting the lorry. The impact of the collision was severe and the car was completely damaged.
Local residents, along with fire and rescue personnel and police, conducted a rescue operation to pull the youths from the mangled vehicle. The bodies were subsequently taken to the mortuary of Thrissur Medical College for post-mortem examinations.
Kaipamangalam police have registered a case against the lorry driver under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for culpable homicide. Police said the lorry driver went into hiding soon after the accident.
Authorities contacted the families of the deceased using student identity cards recovered from the bodies. Police noted that some of the families were unaware that their children had travelled to Kerala. Postmortem procedures will commence after the families of the deceased arrive at Thrissur Medical College.
