Four members of a family travelling in a car were killed after the car hit a roadside building and caught fire in Udayapura on the outskirts of Channarayapatna in Hassan district on Thursday, according to reports.
The accident occurred on NH 75 that connects Mangaluru to Bengaluru. The victims were reportedly identified as 52-year-old Vivek Nayak, his 45-year-old wife Reshma Nayak and their two children, Vinanthi and Vineet. They hail from Kundapura in Udupi district and were residing in Chikkabanavara in Bengaluru for the last 15 years, as per The New Indian Express.
The victims were travelling from Bengaluru to Hassan when the tragic accident occurred. A case has been registered by Channarayanapatna Rural police station officials in connection with the accident. Vivek was working as the south Karnataka regional manager of Mumbai-based sports company Spykar.
As per Times of India, the car rammed into an electric pole before hitting the wall of a toilet building sparking a fire from the engine of the vehicle.
People who were passing by rushed to help the family soon after the accident. But even though they tried to pull them out of the car, their efforts were in vain since all four had been killed on the spot. Police officials soon arrived and the bodies were shifted to the government hospital in Channarayanapata for post-mortem.
Residents of Channarayanapatna have protested for years about the rising number of accidents on the national highway passing through the town. Their demands were met with a response by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in 2017 when the authority proposed road safety measures, including service roads at a cost of Rs 240 crore.
The police, in fact, had filed an FIR against the NHAI citing negligence following an accident in the area in 2013.