HYDERABAD: Six migrant workers died and 27 others were injured after a lorry carrying them overturned as the driver veered left to avoid a head-on collision with a car at Shamshabad on Sunday evening. Of the 27 injured, one person is critical, police said.
Thirty-three workers, belonging to Odisha and Chhattisgarh and who work at a local brick kiln in Sulthanpalli near Shamshabad, got into a lorry and went to a local vegetable market earlier in the day.
Around 5.30 pm, the workers started their return journey.
Police said that while trying to avoid the collision, the lorry driver lost control and the lorry fell to a side at high speed. Three persons — K Suna, 40, Gopal Deep, 45, and Kala Kumar,25, who were standing on the rear side of the lorry —fell out of the vehicle and were run over by the car. They died on the spot.
Some persons were caught underneath the lorry. When the rescue operation was completed, four persons were still alive. They were immediately shifted to hospital. Within a few hours, three persons— Sahadar of Odisha, Hasthu and Paramanand of Chhattisgarh — succumbed. All the other persons in the lorry escaped with simple injuries.
“The accident took place on a single road. The driver was not supposed to take humans in the lorry. It’s a crime,’’ deputy commissioner of police (Shamshabad zone) N Prakash Reddy told TOI. A case was registered under the Section 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC.