11 die after truck-tempo collision near Karnataka's Dharwad

DHARWAD: In a shocking incident, 11 persons died after their tempo collided with a truck coming from the opposite direction on Hubballi-Dharwad bypass road on Friday morning.

The accident was reported near Ittigatti cross located about 8 km from Dharwad city.

Ten women passengers and a driver of the tempo died in the accident. Six injured have been shifted to KIMS hospital. The deceased hailed from Davangere were school friends and were heading to Goa for a trip.

Police said that some of the injured are still critical and are under treatment. The bypass highway witnessed a traffic snarl after the accident.

The police cleared the traffic after the vehicles involved in the accident were removed from the highway. 

The 32 km stretch of Hubballi-Dharwad bypass is a single lane on the national highway stretching between Pune and Bengaluru. This is also the only single lane stretch between the Mumbai and Chennai industrial corridor and been witnessing accidents. 

"There is a long pending demand to widen the road but due to previous conditions between the road developer and the government the widening may happen only post 2023," said a local resident.