In the small hours after a Saturday night on a Kannur road, a car carrying five young engineering students from Bengaluru left the tarmac at Mattannur and met a tree, and before the next morning had ended, all five were gone. Such losses land heavily on families who sent their children across state lines for education and celebration alike. Now investigators are weighing speed against something less visible: the blinding glare of an oncoming vehicle's high beams, which may have turned a moment of ordinary driving into a fatal one. The question is still open, and until evidence settles it, the
Kannur Crash Toll Rises to Five as Police Probe Whether Oncoming High Beams Caused Fatal Tree Collision
Five young men, students from Bengaluru and natives of Kerala, Kasaragod, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, died in the crash, the last on Sunday morning.
All five young men who had been inside it were dead.
Mark
Five friends, all from the same college, all gone. What do police actually say caused this?
Mimi
Overspeeding is named as the primary cause. They say the car allegedly lost control, left the road and hit a tree.
Mark
Then why is everyone talking about headlights?
Mimi
Because police are also exploring whether an oncoming vehicle came with high beams on and dazzled the driver. It's one of the other factors they're examining.
Luke
I'd stress the wording there. Police said they are exploring a possibility. Nothing reported so far confirms a glaring vehicle existed.
Mark
Is there any evidence yet?
Mimi
They've started reviewing CCTV from the site, but they don't yet have visuals confirming the sequence of events.
Luke
And several vehicles were passing at that hour, so even good footage may not single one out. That's a real limit on what can be proven.
Mark
Earlier they thought the driver fell asleep, didn't they?
Mimi
Yes, that was the initial suspicion. Investigators have moved to look at other contributing factors.
Luke
So the explanation has already shifted once. It's reasonable to expect it could shift again, and we don't know the driver's account or whether it can be obtained.
Mimi
What is settled is the loss: five young men, from Kannur, Kasaragod, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Thrissur, the last dying Sunday morning.
Le Pouls
- Five young men lost their lives after a car veered off the road and struck a tree in Mattannur, Kannur, late on Saturday night.
- The toll climbed from four to five when one of the injured died in a Kannur hospital on Sunday morning, deepening the shock for the families involved.
- Police first pointed to overspeeding and a possible driver who fell asleep, but are now testing whether oncoming high-beam headlights blinded the driver.
- Investigators are combing CCTV footage from the site, yet several vehicles passed through at the time, making it hard to pinpoint the one that mattered.
- The case remains unresolved, with overspeeding still the only primary cause officially named while the glare theory awaits proof.
In the small hours after a Saturday night on a Kannur road, a car carrying five young engineering students from Bengaluru left the tarmac at Mattannur and met a tree, and before the next morning had ended, all five were gone. Such losses land heavily on families who sent their children across state lines for education and celebration alike. Now investigators are weighing speed against something less visible: the blinding glare of an oncoming vehicle's high beams, which may have turned a moment of ordinary driving into a fatal one. The question is still open, and until evidence settles it, the story remains one of unanswered cause as much as of grief.
At about 11.15 pm on Saturday, a car with Uttar Pradesh registration left the road at Mattannur in Kannur district and slammed into a tree. By Sunday morning, all five young men inside were dead, the last of them, Adithya Krishnan of Thrissur, succumbing to injuries in a private hospital in Kannur.
The others were Shan Siraj of Kannur, Riswan of Kasaragod, Harsh from Andhra Pradesh and Param Chethri from Uttar Pradesh. All five had studied together at the VSM Institute of Aerospace Engineering and Technology in Yelahanka, Bengaluru, and were travelling to a friend's cousin's wedding when disaster struck. The impact left the car beyond recognition, and rescue crews had to cut open its front section to free two trapped occupants.
Police initially named overspeeding as the primary cause, with an early theory that the driver may have dozed off. Now they are examining whether a vehicle coming the other way had its high beams on, blinding the driver enough to make him swerve. This remains a possibility under review, not a established finding.
CCTV footage from the site is being studied to test the theory, but several vehicles passed through at the time, and no visuals have yet confirmed what happened. Whether footage can place a particular car with undimmed lights on the road will determine how the story ends.
At about 11.15 pm on Saturday, a car with Uttar Pradesh registration left the road at Mattannur in Kannur district and slammed into a tree. By Sunday morning, all five young men who had been inside it were dead.
The last to die was Adithya Krishnan, a native of Thrissur, who had been receiving treatment at a private hospital in Kannur. His death on Sunday raised the toll from four to five. The others killed were Shan Siraj of Kannur, Riswan of Kasaragod, Harsh from Andhra Pradesh, and Param Chethri from Uttar Pradesh.
The five had studied together at the VSM Institute of Aerospace Engineering and Technology in Yelahanka, Bengaluru. They were travelling to attend the wedding of a friend's cousin when the car went off the road.
The force of the impact left the vehicle mangled beyond recognition. Fire and Rescue Services personnel used hydraulic rescue equipment to cut open the front section of the car and pull out two occupants who were trapped in the front seats.
Police have named overspeeding as the primary cause, saying the car allegedly lost control at high speed before veering off the road. Their early working theory was that the driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel. Investigators are now looking at other factors that may have contributed.
One line of inquiry concerns an oncoming vehicle. The Mattannur police said they are exploring whether a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction approached with its high beams on, which could have affected the driver's visibility and caused the car to swerve off the road. At this stage it is a possibility under examination, not a finding.
Investigators have started going through CCTV footage from the accident site to test the idea, but they have not yet obtained visuals confirming the sequence of events. Police said several vehicles were passing through the area at the time, which makes it difficult to identify any specific vehicle that may have been involved.
What to watch for is whether the footage can place a particular vehicle, with its lights undimmed, on the road at that moment. Until then, overspeeding remains the only cause police have identified as primary.
Citations marquantes
We are exploring the possibility that a vehicle travelling from the opposite direction approached with high-beam headlights, which could have affected the driver's visibility.— Mattannur police
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