Gouri Sankar, who was on driver’s seat, named first accused in Kalarcode Accident, report exempts KSRTC driver

ALAPPUZHA: Gouri Sankar, the medical student, who was on the driver’s seat in the accident that led to the death of five medicos, has been named as the first accused. The Alappuzha South police filed a report in the court naming Gouri Sankar as accused in the case registered in the accident. The new report cancelled the FIR initially registered against the KSRTC driver.

The Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) has concluded that Gouri Sankar’s vision may have been obscured by the bright light of the car that overtook the KSRTC bus just before the accident. Gouri Sankar had stated that the accident occurred while he was overtaking the vehicle behind him. While overtaking the car in front on the right side, he did not reach the desired speed. Seeing the KSRTC bus coming from the opposite side, he suddenly applied the brakes. The vehicle lost control and skidded to the right and crashed into the bus, Gouri Sankar of Kannankulangara in Tripunithura, said in his statement to the police.

Of the three injured in the accident and in a critical condition at the Government Medical College Hospital, Alvin George, a native of Edathua, was shifted to a private hospital in Ernakulam for specialist treatment. He was taken in an ambulance equipped with a ventilator. Anand Manu of Karthika House in Kollam Poruvazhi, and Krishnadev of Manappurath House in Cherthala, were taken off the ventilator after their condition improved a bit.

Gouri Sankar and Muhsin of Makkathil at Chavara in Kollam are undergoing treatment. Shane Denston of Marianadu in Thiruvananthapuram, who was not injured but suffered severe mental trauma, returned home with his parents yesterday. There were 11 first-year medical students in the vehicle that met with the accident on Monday night.