A multiple collision accident at Thoppur Ghat on Bengaluru highway on Saturday afternoon has killed four and injured many others. The horrific accident involving one truck and at least 12 vehicles, including cars, mini trucks and two-wheelers, caused a severe traffic snarl upto a few kilometres along the Salem-Bengaluru National Highway. This stretch comes under Tamil Nadu’s Dharmapuri district.
The police have said that the accident was caused when a speeding cement-laden truck rammed into vehicles that were already in a traffic jam owing to some obstruction a little distance away from the spot. The driver who was driving the Salem-bound truck has absconded and police are currently investigating the accident.
Footage from a CCTV camera that caught the accident shows a speeding trailer truck heading straight in for a head-on collision with a line of vehicles that were immobile due to a jam. The truck continues to move, even as the pile-up of vehicles break the median barricade and spill over to the median side of the road.
The resultant pile-up caused a major traffic jam in the area that lasted for several hours.
Watch the CCTV visuals of the horrific accident:
CCTV footage from the #ThoppurGhat multiple collision that killed four and injured many on Saturday. Footage shows a speeding truck ramming straight into vehicles @thenewsminute #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/beQ4W6ekcQ
— Anjana Shekar (@AnjanaShekar) December 13, 2020
Those killed in the accident include 40-year-old Kannan from Dharmapuri, who was on a two-wheeler; 42-year-old Madhan Kumar and his 38-year-old driver Karthik, both from Omalur in Salem; and 35-year-old Nithyanandan from Coimbatore.
According to reports, the traffic jam was caused by another truck that had broken down on the ghat area earlier in the afternoon. While the area was being cordoned off by the police, vehicles kept coming, leading to a long-winding jam. It was this jam that the speeding truck collided into.
Dharmapuri district collector SP Karthikaa along with Superintendent of Police C Praveshkumar visited the area to oversee relief works. The injured were taken to Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College and Dharmapuri Medical College Hospital for treatment.