Driver swap, brake failure suspected in Valparai crash that killed nine

The Kerala Transport department is struggling to identify the cause of the accident on the Valparai ghat road near Pollachi on Friday evening, in which a Tempo Traveller carrying primary schoolteachers from Pang in Malappuram district plunged off the road and landed nearly 500 feet below, claiming nine lives.

The 16-seater vehicle bearing registration KL 11 AM 7288 was reduced to a heap of mangled metal in the fall. Transport officials said the van was so badly damaged that it was difficult to determine whether any mechanical failure had contributed to the accident.