Four members of a family were charred to death and another person was critically injured after their electric vehicle (EV) crashed into a road divider and caught fire on the Vijayawada West Bypass in Andhra Pradesh’s NTR district on Monday evening, police said.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control, while police launched an investigation into the circumstances leading to the crash. The flames quickly engulfed the car, trapping four occupants inside. Another person travelling in the car sustained critical injuries. Local residents alerted the police and fire services and helped shift the injured person to a nearby hospital. Police and fire personnel reached the spot soon after receiving information about the accident. Further investigation is under way to establish the exact sequence of events that led to the car crashing into the divider and catching fire.
The accident occurred at 6pm when the occupants were returning from a family function in Namburu village in Guntur district, police said. The car rammed into a roadside railing or divider, following which a fire broke out inside the vehicle, according to a senior Vijayawada police official. They died at the spot, the official said. The victim’s condition remained critical, police said, citing doctors. Preliminary findings suggest that overspeeding may have caused the accident, police said.
