A 32-year-old woman died after the car she was travelling in plunged nearly 40 feet from a flyover on the Bengaluru-Mysuru national highway into an underpass near Mandya town in Karnataka on Friday evening, police said.
The woman, identified as Anjana D R, was seated in the rear seat and working on her laptop when the Hyundai Venue went off the elevated stretch at around 6 pm. She was thrown out of the vehicle on impact and suffered severe head injuries and heavy blood loss. She died while being taken to a hospital, according to the police.
Anjana was travelling with her husband, Harish, who was driving the car, and their family friend Nitin. The three were reportedly on their way to their company’s Mysuru branch when the crash occurred on the outskirts of Mandya. Harish and Nitin sustained minor injuries and remained inside the vehicle, while Anjana was ejected from it, police said.
The precise circumstances that caused the car to leave the flyover remain unclear. Mandya police are awaiting reports as part of their investigation. A police officer said the vehicle may have struck a divider before becoming airborne and overturning several times before landing below.
“This is probably the first time such an accident has occurred where the vehicle has plunged into the small gap that usually gives light to the underpass,” the officer said. The area below the flyover was being used as a service road, and no other vehicles were present when the car landed, the officer added.
The incident places attention on the safety interface between elevated road structures, dividers, openings and the roads or underpasses below them. In this case, police said the vehicle fell through a small gap intended to provide light to the underpass. The available police account has not established whether the divider, flyover edge or the opening itself failed to contain the vehicle after the reported impact.
The police have registered a case under provisions relating to rash or negligent driving, rash or negligent acts endangering human life or personal safety and causing hurt, as well as causing death by a rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide.
The investigation will determine how the vehicle left the elevated roadway and establish the circumstances leading to the fatal fall. Police are awaiting the relevant reports before drawing further conclusions.
