14 killed in two major accidents

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, AUG. 13. Fourteen persons were killed and 20 injured in two major accidents in the State on Monday.

Five persons, including four women, were crushed to death under a train on the Mallapur railway bridge near Bagalkot town.

A middle-aged woman, hit by the train, fell into the water, and is feared killed. Efforts were on to trace the body. The tragedy occurred at about 7 a.m. when the group was returning home after attending the ``Rudrabhisheka pooja'' at Mallikarjunaswamy temple in Mallapur village.

As the nearest approach road between Bagalkot town and Mallapur has been submerged under the backwaters of Alamatti Dam, the railway bridge is being used by the people as an alternative route.

When the group was passing through the bridge, the Bijapur-Gadag train arrived, and they could not escape.

The dead have been identified as Gouramma Hiregoudar (50), Savitramma Mahadevappa Davanageri (28), Parvathamma Eerappa Davanageri (40), Siddamma Sunkad (35) and Srishaila Kovalli (56).

Gouramma Hiregoudar hailed from Alur village in Bijapur district, and the rest from Kavalipet locality in Bagalkot town. Four of them were cremated in the afternoon. The name of the woman feared killed was given as Bharathi Math (35).

In the second accident, eight persons were killed and 20 were injured, 12 of them seriously, in a collision between a private bus and a KSRTC bus near Mangalpady School at Kumble.

Sources at the Kumble Police Station said the private bus that was on its way from Mangalore overtook a stationary bus and hit the KSRTC bus, which was bound for Mangalore. Though the driver of the KSRTC bus tried to avert the collision by turning to the left, the private bus rammed it in the rear killing eight passengers.

Ten of the seriously injured have been shifted to private hospitals in Mangalore, while a few others were treated locally.

Police have identified the dead as Sr. Annie Mathew, a student of nursing in Mangalore, Jagadeesh of Kasargod, Latheef of Mogral, Aboobaker of Bambrana, Kumble, Pradeep Shetty and Kalyani of Kanhangad, and Haneefa of Kundavalappu, Kasargod.

The driver of the private bus fled from the scene, the sources added.

The injured have been identified as Raghavan, Padmini, Indira (Mangalore), Suresh Babu, Mohammed, Sundara, Susheela, Shibu, Abdullah, Lateef, Moideen, and Abdullah (Bandiyod).

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