15 killed in AP road mishap

Ongole: At least 15 people, including three children, were killed and 21 injured when a mini truck carrying a marriage party collided with a bus near Kandukur town in Prakasam district on Saturday.

The truck was carrying 52 passengers while there were no passengers on board in the bus. Transport minister Sidda Raghava Rao, who reached the spot along with MLAs Damacharla Janardhan and DVB Swamy, announced Rs 2 lakh ex gratia to the kin of the deceased. District Collector Sujatha Sarma also visited the mishap site.

Just about a few minutes before the marriage party, the bus had dropped the students of a school at Lingasamudram from an excursion and headed to Kandukur.

The driver had a drink at Valetivaripalem before taking the wheel. As he didn’t have enough sleep and had alcohol in the early morning he lost control of the bus and hit the mini lorry.

The bus hit the van and both vehicles fell into the road side canal killing 15 on the spot. Ten seriously injured passengers were shifted to the RIMS and Sanghamitra hospitals in Ongole and 20 others were admitted to a hospital in Kandukur.

Among the dead, Todeti Prasad, who got a job in State Bank of India recently, is to join the office in next week.

The deceased were identified as N Subhasini (31), P Prasad (30), Subba Rao (50), E Chiranjeevi (45), S Chandu (10), S Adinarayana (10), Srilakha (8), M Padma (40), K Sushela (47), S Venkateswara Rao (40), S Rajamma (40), V Subbaiah (30), V Chinnaya, S Rajayya, and B Hazarataiah.

Gold jewellery worth Rs 10 lakh missing As the victims were attending the marriage, they had lot of gold ornaments with them. Their family members complain of the missing jewellery to the police.