Kasaragod: Three people returning from Mookambika temple in Kollur were killed when a speeding ambulance with a patient crashed into their Hyundai Eon near Talapady toll gate on the border of Kasaragod's Manjeshwar, said police. The deceased are P Sivakumar (54) from Thrissur's Irinjalakuda, and his sons Sarath S Menon (23) and Sourav (15). 

The accident occured at around 11 am on Tuesday. According to residents, the ambulance belonging to Wintouch Hospital in Kasaragod was on the wrong side on the six-lane national highway under construction. It was rushing a female patient to a hospital in Mangaluru. Eyewitnesses said the Eon was dragged for nearly 100m in the impact of the crash.

The residents, who extricated people from the two vehicles said, the ambulance driver's leg was severely injured in the accident. The female patient in the ambulance was accompanied by her husband and a caregiver. They were shifted to a private hospital following the accident.

Sivakumar and sons are survived by wife and mother Smitha Sivakumar, who runs a Jana Seva Kendra in Irinjalakuda.

Sivakumar worked in a company in Dubai. He came home for vacation. The father and sons undertook a road trip to Bengaluru to meet his aunt, said Irinjalakuda councillor K M Santhosh. "Smitha did not join them because she was not keeping well. We have not yet told her about her loss," he said.