The eight victims of a road accident in Southern England on Saturday were all identified as Indians. Three of them were Wipro employees who were on their way to France for a holiday with their families, PTI reported on Monday.
Earlier, only the driver of one of the vehicles involved in the mishap was identified as an Indian.
The accident took place at the M1 highway at Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire, when two trucks crushed the minibus the passengers were travelling in. The minibus was on its way to London. The 11 passengers on board were set to travel to France from there. Three passengers, including a five-year-old girl, are in critical condition.
Ramesh Phillips, the head of Operations Support for Wipro in Europe, identified those killed as Karthikeyan Ramasubramaniyam Pugalur, Rishi Rajeev Kumar and Vivek Bhaskaran. He said another Wipro employee, Mano Ranjan Panneerselvam, was in a critical state.
The two truck drivers, 31-year-old Ryszard Masierak and 53-year-old David Wagstaff, were arrested from the scene of the accident and charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving. Masierak, who was also charged with driving while over the prescribed alcohol limit, will appear in court on Monday.
This was the worst road accident on a British motorway in 24 years, according to The Times of India. In November 1993, 12 children and their teacher had died in a similar crash.
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