Four Indian nationals burnt alive in horrific multiple-vehicle road accident in Texas

Houston: Four Indian nationals, including a young woman, lost their lives and several others were injured in a tragic multi-vehicle road accident in the US state of Texas during the Labour Day weekend.

According to the Collin County Sheriff’s Office, the accident involving five vehicles occurred on the northbound US 75 just past White Street at Anna near Dallas.

Consul General of India in Houston D C Manjunath confirmed the identities and shared that the Consulate General of India (CGI) is in touch with the families and community organisations, providing full support during this tragic moment.

According to witnesses and preliminary reports, traffic was at a standstill on the highway and an SUV was among those vehicles that were halted when the accident took place on Friday afternoon.

A truck travelling at a high speed failed to slow down and struck the rear of the SUV. The force of the collision was such that the SUV caught fire and the four occupants were trapped inside which resulted in their deaths.

It took days to officially identify the victims as the bodies were charred beyond recognition.

Several others sustained non-life-threatening injuries though the exact number remains unclear.

The victims were identified as Aryan Raghunath Orampatti from Kukatpally suburb of Hyderabad, his friend Farooq Sheikh, Lokesh Palacharla, another Telugu student, and Darshini Vasudev from Tamil Nadu.

Orampatti and Sheikh were returning after visiting a cousin in Dallas while Palacharla was heading to Bentonville to reunite with his wife. Darshini Vasudev, a postgraduate from the University of Texas, was on her way to visit her uncle in Arkansas.

The identification of the victims was delayed due to the long weekend and the need for DNA fingerprinting, using bone remnants to confirm their identities.

“Darshini’s uncle Ramanujam lives in Bentonville, Arkansas. She was going to visit him. Darshini had just completed her Master’s and had started her job in Frisco, Dallas,” Manjunath said.

“The other two, Umar Farooq Sheikh and Aryan Raghunath Orampatti, were recent graduates from the University of Texas at Dallas, with Sheikh completing his MS in Business Analytics in Spring 2023, and Orampatti pursuing his MS in Finance, set to graduate in Spring 2024. Lokesh, who was driving the vehicle, was also a working professional,” Manjunath added.

The loss is deeply felt within the Indian diaspora, especially the shocked Telugu community.