Pics: Inchara Udupi
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Mar 8: The driver of a tourist car died on the spot after a tanker collided head on with his vehicle at Koppalangadi in Kaup on national highway 66 on the evening of Friday March 7. 

The Maruti Swift car in which driver, Koosappa Salian (52) was returning from the town after dropping off some passengers who had landed at Bajpe airport, was hit by a tanker head-on.

It is said that the tanker was being driven in rash manner, and it was moving on wrong side of the road. Salian, who worked as tourist car driver at Bajpe airport, was from Pejavar near Bajpe.

Salian, it is learnt, started working as driver at a very young, and his poor family, of which he was the lone breadwinner, is facing a stark future. He is survived by mother, wife, and daughter.

The driver was taken out of the badly damaged car with great difficulty as the car was very badly damaged in the accident, and was transported immediately to a hospital in the town by ambulance. However, he was pronounced brought dead. On account of the sudden accident, tyres of the tanker burst, and the tanker blocked the highway after turning across as a result. Traffic on the highway was paralyzed for sometime thereafter. Policemen from Kaup station faced the daunting task of regulating the traffic on the highway.

The tanker driver, identified as Jayaram from Kundapur, has been taken into custody by kaup police. A case stands registered, and Jayaram is being questioned,