9 students, teacher killed in mishap

By Our Staff Correspondent

SANKESHWAR (Belgaum Dt.), FEB. 10. Nine students and a teacher were burned to death when a Tempo Trax in which they were travelling burst into flames after colliding with a lorry in the early hours of today. The accident, in which four persons were injured, occurred at Hebbal Cross on the Bangalore-Pune highway, 7 km from here.

The bodies of most of the deceased were burned beyond recognition. Both the vehicles were destroyed in the fire which was caused when the lorry's diesel tank ruptured in the collision. Police reached the spot within 20 minutes and shifted the injured to hospital. The bodies were taken to the mortuary.

The deceased were identified as J.B. Korti, Channappa Sadashiv Kumbar, Baburao Vilas Patil, Sanjeev Tatoba Todkar, Raju Mallayya Ganachari, Ramgonda Shivagonda Patil, Raju Daryeppa Masale, Shankar Appasaheb Tarakare, Chandkhan Sahebkhan Hakeem and Raju Mukund.

The students were aged between 18 and 21 years while the teacher, J.B. Korti, was about 35.

The injured - Sanjeev Siddappa Salotgi, Sachin Babu Arvade, Avinash Ganapati Savanth and Chandrashekar Shankargouda Patil (lorry driver) - were admitted to the local government hospital. None suffered life-threatening injuries.

All the deceased and three of the four injured were from the Industrial Training Institute run by the Shri Babukaka Shirgaonkar Technology Educational Trust at Ugarkhurd in Athani taluk. They were on their way to Dharmasthala when their vehicle crashed into the diesel tank of the lorry coming from Belgaum around 12.15 a.m.

Sanjeev Salotgi, Sachin Arvade and Avinash Savanth, who were sitting with two others in the rear of the Tempo Trax were rescued by a youth who happened to be on the scene. They, along with the others, had been asleep and were too dazed to realise the enormity of what had happened till their rescuer told them that they had been in an accident. Before they knew it, both the vehicles were in flames and they could do nothing. ``All this happened in a few minutes and we lost our friends,'' Sanjeev, Sachin and Avinash told The Hindu.

Parents and relatives of the students rushed to the hospital and the mortuary on hearing about the accident. The scene at the mortuary was heart-rending with the kin of the deceased sobbing uncontrollably. Local politicians, officials and social workers attempted to ease their pain but nothing could console them. The parents could not believe that their sons, who had left for a darshan of the deity, had met such an untimely end.

But the parents of Sanjeev, Sachin and Avinash who miraculously survived, were grateful to the unknown youth, who risked his life in rescuing them.

The youth is yet to be identified since he is said to have left the scene of the mishap immediately after pulling the three boys out of the vehicle.

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