Dharwad accident death toll climbs to 12 after 42-year-old woman succumbs

HUBBALLI: Dharwad accident toll rose to 12 after another injured woman succumbed to death in a private hospital in Bengaluru on Sunday. The mishap took place on National Highway-48 near Ittigatti in Dharwad taluk on January 15 morning where eight persons including the two drivers died on the spot and three others at a hospital.

A minibus carrying former students of a private convent from Davangere to Goa collided with a truck that was coming from the opposite direction on the single-lane highway. In the mishap, 11 were killed and seven were injured including the truck driver and they were shifted to KIMS hospital in Hubballi for treatment. 

The injured Veda M, 42, was airlifted to Bengaluru for treatment on the same day (January 15) evening. An air ambulance from Bengaluru with expert doctors from Bengaluru visited Hubballi and airlifted the severely injured patients.

Veda was suffering from critical injuries and succumbed in Bengaluru. Sources said she was a daughter-in-law of former MLA H Chandrashekar and soon after her death, her organs were donated.

On the day of mishap, another injured woman was shifted to Davangere hospital and she is stable. Four other women were shifted to a private hospital in Hubballi in that two were recovered and discharged and two other women are stable and recovering from the injuries. The truck driver was shifted to a private hospital in Belagavi and he is also stable.

Soon after the mishap, hundreds of people in Hubballi-Dharwad staged few protests against the government for not taking up road widening work at the single-lane highway which has been causing accidents. The government also announced taking up road widening work within a couple of months.