Five Sabarimala Pilgrims Killed in High-Speed Crash on East Coast Road in Tamil Nadu
Five crushed to death as high-speed vehicle rams parked pilgrims’ car.
A catastrophic road accident on East Coast Road near Keelakarai in Ramanathapuram district claimed five lives and injured seven others in the early hours of Saturday, when a speeding Tamil Nadu-registered car violently collided with a stationary vehicle carrying Sabarimala pilgrims returning from Kerala to Andhra Pradesh.
The pilgrims, all residents of Vizianagaram district, were travelling in a car bearing registration AP 40 FK 5781. Exhausted after their spiritual journey, the five men had pulled over to the roadside around 1:50 am and fallen asleep inside the parked vehicle, unaware that it would become their death trap within minutes.
The oncoming car (TN 65 BA 9000), driven by 34-year-old Mustak Ahammed of North Street, Keelakarai, allegedly approached at excessive speed and rammed the stationary vehicle with devastating force. Ramanathapuram Superintendent of Police G Chandeesh stated that preliminary findings clearly indicate overspeeding combined with negligent driving as the primary factors behind the collision.
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The impact instantly killed four individuals: driver Mustak Ahammed and three pilgrims—Ramachandra Rao (35), Appavu Naidu (35), and Bandara Chandru Rao (45). The two surviving pilgrims, Ramu (60) and Sri Ram (40), were extricated from the mangled wreckage and rushed to Ramanathapuram Government Medical College Hospital, where Ramu succumbed to severe injuries hours later, pushing the death toll to five.
Six passengers travelling in the speeding car, including teenagers aged 15 and 19, sustained multiple fractures and internal injuries; one remains in critical condition. Keelakarai police have registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for rash driving and causing death by negligence, while all bodies have been sent for post-mortem examination as the investigation intensifies into yet another fatal incident on Tamil Nadu’s perilous coastal highway.
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