NOB_THRISSUR, KERALA : A horrifying late-night accident on National Highway 66 claimed the lives of eight young men seven engineering college students from Tamil Nadu and their driver when their car slammed at high speed into an illegally parked goods container lorry.
The tragedy occurred around 11:40 PM at Panambikkunnu near Kaipamangalam in Kerala’s Thrissur district.
According to preliminary police reports, the victims were traveling from Guruvayur toward Kodungallur in a Tamil Nadu-registered car. The stretch of NH 66 where the crash took place was undergoing widening works, with barricades diverting traffic.

The car was traveling at high speed, and the driver failed to notice the diversion barricades, crashing into the rear of a Maharashtra-registered container lorry parked on the right side of the active lane.
The impact completely crushed the front half of the car, killing six occupants on the spot. Two others were extracted from the mangled wreckage during emergency operations but were declared dead upon arrival at a nearby hospital
Local residents, along with Kaipamangalam police and Kerala Fire & Rescue personnel, carried out the extrication using hydraulic cutters
Authorities established contact with the victims’ families using college identity cards found in the wreckage. Several parents were unaware their children had traveled across state lines to Kerala.
The Kaipamangalam Police Station registered an FIR under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the lorry driver. The driver reportedly abandoned the heavy vehicle and fled the scene immediately after the collision. A search operation is underway to locate him.
Postmortem procedures are being conducted at the Thrissur Medical College Mortuary as families arrive from Tamil Nadu.