COIMBATORE/KOCHI: Kerala woke up on Thursday to the tragedy of a horrific road crash, involving a state transport (KSRTC) bus and a floor tiles-laden container truck near Avinashi on Tirupur-Salem bypass in Tamil Nadu around 3.40am, that claimed the lives of 19 people and left 25 injured. The deceased included five women and the two driver-cum-conductors of the multi-axle luxury bus.The bus was going to Ernakulam from Bengaluru with 48 passengers. The container truck, laden with over 25 tonnes of floor tiles, was heading towards Bengaluru from Kochi. Police said the truck driver, K A Hemaraj (37), might have fallen asleep at the wheel and lost control of the vehicle. The speeding truck hit the 15-cm high median, entered the other side of the lane and rammed the bus head-on.The right side of the bus was completely torn off till near its middle. Most passengers sitting on the left side of the bus were stuck inside for hours as the front portion was completely mangled. Rescue works lasted till around 8.30am.The post-mortem of bodies was conducted at Tirupur government hospital before handing them over to relatives while the injured were rushed to nearby hospitals.Tirupur city police commissioner Sanjay Kumar said that the truck driver had been arrested and booked under IPC sections 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304A (causing death by negligence).“The autopsy of 18 persons was completed by evening and the bodies handed over to relatives. All of them are Keralites. The remaining is that of a Thumkoor native. The condition of one of the injured, Bincy, is a bit serious, for whom medical care is being given,” Kerala transport minister A K Saseendran said.The Kerala state government will bear the treatment expenses of the injured.