Daijiworld Media Network - Beltangady (SP)
Beltangady, Mar 29: Assistant professor in Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Engineering College, Ujire, Nitin Badekillaya (32), lost his life after the car in which he and some others were travelling collided with a truck at Mariyammanahalli in Ballari district on Saturday March 28.
In the accident, a person named Shantakumar (27) from Salem in Tamil Nadu also died, while four others including a five-year-old suffered serious injuries. The injured are Nitin's wife, Divya (28), five-year-old son, Ninaad, father, Nityananda Badekillaya, mother, Shashikala (56), and Divya's mother, Prabhavathi (52). All the injured were admitted into the hospital at Hospet.
Nitin was working as assistant professor in computer science department of the said college. He was the son of Nityananda Badekillaya from Dharmasthala and pursued bachelor of engineering degree course through AMC Engineering College, Bengaluru and M Tech through Manipal Institute of Engineering. He is survived by parents, wife, and five-year-old son. Before joining SDM College last year, he was working for Manipal Institute of Technology.
Nitin and his family members had gone to Mantralaya on pilgrimage in a car. On their return, they visited historical town, Hampi, at about 7 am on Saturday. They visited the house of Prabhakar Datta, priest of Venugopal Temple at Hospet, and had lunch at his home. They began their return journey to Dharmasthala at about 2 pm, and the tragedy occurred within sometime thereafter.
The car, which was moving on national highway 13, was involved with head-on collision with a truck coming from opposite direction at Guda Forest. Nitin, who was driving the car, tried at the last moment to jump out of the car, but as the truck hit the car before he safely got away, his body got stuck between the car and the truck. As the driver of the truck tried to apply brake hurriedly, the truck fell by its side on the road. Its driver, Shantakumar, died after getting crushed under the weight of the truck.