In a tragic accident that occurred late Monday night, five members of the same family were killed after their car fell into a canal in Belagavi, according to reports. As they were returning to their village in the same taluk, the car plunged into the Ghataprabha left bank canal near Shivapur village of Savadatti taluk. Only their driver, Adiveppa Malagi, reportedly survived as he swam to the bank.
The accident took place at 10 pm after the vehicle lost control and skidded into the canal, reports say.
Along with police and local residents, State Disaster Response Force reportedly recovered the bodies of Paravva Pujeri (45), Lagmanna Pujeri (38) and Laxmi Pujeri (35). The bodies were sent to a nearby government hospital. A while later, police were able to recover the bodies of Fakiravva Pujeri (29) and Hanumant Pujeri (60), after the car was fished out with the help of a crane, according to reports.
Police reportedly said that family was on their back to their Kadabi village residence after attending a funeral of a relative. A case has been registered by Murgod police.
In a large scale tragedy in late November 2017, more than 30 passengers, including school children, died after the bus they were travelling in fell into the Visvesvaraya canal on a Saturday afternoon. The driver and the conductor of the bus managed to escape to safety.
According to latest statistics maintained by the Union Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, a total of 464,910 road accidents were reported in 2017, resulting in the death of 147,913 people and injuring 470,975 people. This means that every day, on an average, 405 people die in road accidents in the country.
According to the same data set, Karnataka saw 10,609 deaths in road accidents for the year 2017, which was 524 less than in 2016.