KRISHNAGIRI: At least three men died and one was seriously injured after a car collided head-on with a private Omni bus near the Sanamavu forest area, close to Hosur, in the early hours of Wednesday.They were travelling home to cast their votes in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, scheduled for Thursday.The deceased have been identified as Veeramani (25), Pradeep (25) and Mari (24), all were from Sigaralli village near Pennagaram in Dharmapuri district.The accident occurred around 4 am when the car carrying four youths from Bengaluru towards Pennagaram hit the Omni bus travelling from Udumalpet towards Hosur. The impact reduced the car to mangled debris.“Veeramani, who ran a chips shop in Bengaluru, and his colleagues Pradeep and Mari, who worked in similar shops, succumbed to their injuries on the spot,” said a police official from Uddanapalli police station. He added that the fourth occupant, Satheesh Kumar (25), survived with serious injuries and was undergoing treatment at Hosur Government Hospital.Police from Uddanapalli station reached the spot, recovered the bodies and sent them for post-mortem examination. A case has been registered and investigations are under way to determine the cause of the accident.The incident has caused grief among residents, with many saying the youths’ eagerness to participate in the election ended in tragedy.
