Four Indian nationals burned alive in horrific multi-vehicle crash in Texas

Houston: Four Indian citizens, including a young woman, were killed and several others injured in a tragic multi-vehicle accident in the US state of Texas over the Labor Day weekend.

According to the Collin County Sheriff's Office, the five-vehicle crash occurred on northbound U.S. 75 just past White Street in Anna, near Dallas.

Indian Consul General in Houston DC, Manjunath, confirmed the identities and said that the Consulate General of India (CGI) is in touch with the families and community organizations and is providing them full support at this tragic moment.

According to witnesses and preliminary reports, traffic on the highway had come to a standstill. An SUV was among the vehicles stuck in traffic on Friday afternoon.

A truck traveling at high speed was unable to reduce its speed and crashed into the rear of the SUV. The force of the impact was so great that the SUV caught fire and the four occupants inside were trapped, resulting in their deaths.

It took days before the victims could be officially identified because the bodies were charred beyond recognition.

Several other people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, but the exact number is unclear.

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

Orampatti and Sheikh were returning from visiting a cousin in Dallas, while Palacharla was on his way to Bentonville to be reunited with his wife. Darshini Vasudev, a graduate of 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 to take DNA fingerprints from bone remains to confirm their identities.

“Darshini's uncle Ramanujam lives in Bentonville, Arkansas. She wanted to visit him. Darshini had just completed her master's degree and started her job in Frisco, Dallas,” said Manjunath.

“The other two, Umar Farooq Sheikh and Aryan Raghunath Orampatti, recently graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas. Sheikh will complete his master's degree in business analytics in spring 2023 and Orampatti will complete his master's degree in finance, which he expects to complete in spring 2024. Lokesh, who was driving the vehicle, was also employed,” Manjunath added.

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