A speeding tanker rammed into the car and dragged it off the road into a field. - JSURYAREDDY/TWITTER
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): A Singaporean couple were on holiday in India when a speeding tanker rammed their car on Sunday (March 12).
Yuvarajan Selvam and his wife Nagajoethi Varasarasun, both in their 40s, were killed, along with the man who was driving them from Chennai to Tirupati.
The couple had flown from Singapore to India on March 8 for a holiday, and were to be joined by other family members from Singapore on March 13 for the second leg of their trip.
But on March 12, the couple’s family members received a call informing them that they had died in a road accident in India.
Yuvarajan, a construction manager, and Nagajoethi, a teacher, had chartered a car and driver to take them from Chennai, where they were staying, to a temple in Tirupati on Sunday morning.
The 130km drive was expected to take them about three and a half hours.
But at about 8.30am local time (11am Singapore time), as they were about halfway through the drive near Nagari, Andhra Pradesh, a speeding oil tanker lorry rammed into the car and dragged it off the road into a field.
The couple and their driver reportedly died on the spot.
The driver of the tanker initially fled the scene, causing the police to launch a manhunt for him, reported The Times of India.
It was later reported that the man had been arrested.
A police inspector from Nagari was quoted by Indian daily The Hindu saying that the couple had been on their way to the temple for darshan, which is the act of viewing a deity for blessings in Hinduism.
He added that the bodies had to be extricated from the mangled wreck and were later taken to a hospital in Nagari for autopsy.
The accident caused a long jam that was only cleared after two hours.
The family of the deceased couple received a call from the Singapore authorities at about 3pm on Sunday, and had to break the news to the couple’s nine-year-old son.
Family members flew over to India on Sunday night, and were assisted by the authorities to have the couple’s bodies repatriated.
The wake for the couple is expected to be held at 633 Hougang Avenue 8 from Wednesday evening, and the cortege will leave for Mandai Crematorium on Thursday evening.
The fatal incident was the latest in a string of overseas accidents involving Singaporeans this year.
In January, it was reported that a 41-year-old Singaporean woman and her four-month-old daughter died in an accident in Japan, after their car collided with a truck.
In February, it was reported that a 32-year-old woman, believed to be Singaporean, died along with a 36-year-old man after the car they were in veered off a rural highway in Australia and smashed into a tree.
