Overview
- A tipper lorry carrying soil lost control and overturned into the Neeleswaram bus stop in Kottarakkara on Tuesday, burying waiting passengers under the spilled load.
- Three people died, including a 15-year-old student, and five others were injured with the most seriously hurt moved to private hospitals for specialist care.
- Local residents, police and Fire and Rescue teams used earthmovers and manual digging to free people trapped under soil before patients were moved to Kottarakkara Taluk Hospital, Medicity and other hospitals.
- Officials reported the driver did not hold a heavy-vehicle licence and the Motor Vehicles Department cancelled the lorry’s fitness certificate after finding past violations and that the vehicle’s GPS had been switched off.
- Police and revenue authorities are probing overspeeding, brake failure and negligence as possible causes, and the state has pledged to meet treatment costs while lawmakers have raised the crash in the Assembly.