BM Bureau, Jan 15 : Eleven persons including ten women were killed and six others were critically injured at a terrible road accident near Dharwad in Karnataka , Friday morning. The group comprising of some eminent doctors and members belonging to a prestigious lady’s club from Davanagere in Karnataka were travelling to Goa on a weekend vacation. According to police the accident occurred at around 7 am at Itigatti near Dharwad village when the mini bus they were travelling collided into a tipper truck that was coming from Belagavi.
According to Dharwad police the women had decided to visit the residence of their friend in Dharwad for breakfast and had decided to proceed further to Goa via Alnavar. The accident occurred when the minibus was crossing the Hubbali-Dharwad bypass, ending up in a big collusion with the tipper, Dharwad Rural PI Yaligar said.
The driver of the minibus along with 10 women in the minibus died on the spot, the police said. The deceased have been identified as Praveen the driver and the 10 women including Asha, Meerabai, Paranjyoti, Rajeshwari, Shakuntala, Usha, Veda, Veena, Manjula, Nirmala, Rajaneesh, Swati and Preethi Ravikumar. The driver of the tipper and five women have sustained serious injury and are currently undergoing treatment at KIMS Hospital in Hubballi.
Condoling the death of the women Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet said, “Saddened by the loss of lives due to a road accident in Karnataka’s Dharwad district. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray for a quick recovery of those injured.”
The single lane Hubbali-Dharwad 32 km bypass is the part of the NH4 Pune—Bengaluru national highway and has become a dangerous stretch as it is narrow and the widening work pending for over two decades due to negligence of Karnataka government. An accident case has been registered at Dharwad Rural police station.