Texas: Four Indians died as their SUV burst into flames after a multi-vehicle crash in Anna city in Texas, US. The families of the deceased are waiting for confirmation from the US authorities, who are doing DNA fingerprinting to identify the bodies that were charred beyond recognition.
The devastating crash involving five vehicles took place on Aug 30, when the four Indians were carpooling and heading towards Bentonville city in Arkansas. A speeding truck rammed into their SUV, killing them on the spot.
The victims have been identified as Aryan Raghunath Orampati and his friend Farooq Shaik from Hyderabad, Lokesh Palacharla of East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh and Darshini Vasudevan from Tamil Nadu. Three others sustained injuries in the accident, Anna city police said.
Mastan Vali, father of Farooq, said, “For the last three years, my son had been in the US for his M.S. course, which he completed recently.” He added that his daughter lived in the US and was talking to the authorities there about Farooq’s mortal remains.
Aryan’s parents had recently attended his convocation at University of Texas in Dallas. They wanted him to return, but he was keen to work in the US for two years, a close relative said. Aryan was returning home in Bentonville after visiting a cousin in Dallas along with Farooq. Lokesh was heading to Bentonville to visit his wife, while Darshini - who was doing her master’s from University of Texas - was on her way to visit her uncle.
Witnesses reported that traffic had slowed down on the highway, but the truck was cruising at high speed and failed to decelerate, crashing into the SUV. The impact was so severe that all the four SUV occupants were trapped inside and were unable to escape as it went up in flames, police said.
