Truck-van accident causes tiles to shift, 3 workers crushed to death

Hyderabad: Three migrant workers died and three others suffered injuries when a cargo van carrying tiles crashed into a truck at Miryalaguda during the early hours of Friday. Police registered a case against the van driver and took him into custody.The deceased were Santosh Kumar, 29, Veeru Kumar, 36, and Suraj Kumar, 29. The injured were Sanjeev Kumar, Kishan Kumar and Sakinder Kumar. The victims were natives of Mujaffarabad in Bihar and worked as labourers at tiles companies in Shamshabad.Police said that at around 2.30 am on Friday, the victims boarded a DCM van carrying a load of tiles from a shop in Shamshabad. The consignment was to be delivered to a client at Vinukonda in Palnadu district of Andhra Pradesh. As the van travelled towards Vinukonda, the victims slept in the open space before the stacks of tiles in the cargo bay.At around 2 am, when the van reached Edulagudem Y Junction, it rammed into a truck taking a right turn. "The truck with a load of ash was travelling from Yadadri thermal power station near Wadapally to a cement factory in Mellacheruvu in Suryapet district. At Edulagudem Y junction when the truck took a right turn to go towards Kodad, the DCM van coming from Narketpalle rammed into it in the middle," Miryalaguda 1 town Circle Inspector N Nagabhushan Rao said.According to police, the DCM was travelling at a high speed and the crash caused the stacked tiles to move forward, crushing the sleeping workers. "The workers were crushed between the tiles and the driver's cabin. Three of them died on the spot. Others suffered injuries and shifted to a local private hospital. Their condition is stable," the inspector said.On the complaint of the victims, police registered a case against the van driver, Saleem, under sections 106 (1) (causing death due to negligence) and 125 (a) (Causing hurt by an act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the BNS. The van driver, Saleem, was taken into custody and he will be served a notice as per law.