Kasaragod: A Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) ploughed into two autorickshaws and passengers waiting by the roadside at Talapady on the Kerala-Karnataka border, killing six persons, on Thursday afternoon. Three others were seriously injured.

Yenepoya Medical College at Deralakatte, Mangaluru, where the victims were taken, identified four deceased as Hyderali (47), Khadeeja (50), Hasna (10), daughter of Sbahul Hameed, Nafeesa (52), and Ayisha Fida (19) -- all from Ajjinadka in Kotekar Panchayat in Dakshina Kannada's Ullal taluk (near Manjeshwar); and Havamma (60), wife of Abdul Khader from Farangipete in BC Road in Mangaluru.

The injured were identified as Lakshmi (61) and her son Surendra (39) of Perumbala in Kasaragod. They were waiting for the bus to come to Kasaragod. The accident occurred at 1:12 pm, barely 10 metres after Kerala's six-lane highway ended and narrowed into a four-lane stretch in Karnataka, where there is no median. It was raining heavily at the time.

According to police and eyewitnesses, the Mangaluru-bound passenger bus, on leaving Kerala's six-lane highway, applied a sudden brake. Its worn-out rear tyres had no grip on the wet road, causing the vehicle to skid. The bus veered across the lanes and crashed into Hyderali's Mangaluru-registered autorickshaw, heading towards Kasaragod. The auto was mangled, and all the people inside were killed.

The bus then started moving in reverse due to the impact of the crash and violently spun 90 degrees, crashing into another autorickshaw parked by the roadside. The second autorickshaw's driver, Sameer U of Thuminad in Manjeshwar, escaped with minor injuries after being flung out of his vehicle. His auto's rear tyre burst and its windshield shattered in the crash. "But a woman and her son who were waiting for a bus were trapped between my auto and the bus," he said, referring to Lakshmi and Surendra. "They had just a fraction of a second to react. The boy’s arm was broken," said Sameer.

A top official of Karnataka SRTC's Mangaluru Division said that the bus was supposed to take the service road but sped on the main carriageway. "As soon as the six-lane ended, there was an incline and a blind spot. The driver did not see the autorickshaw," the official said.

After hitting the first auto, the driver applied sudden brakes, which made the bus move in reverse direction, the official said. "If the driver had taken the service road, this accident would not have happened," he said.