CHENNAI: Even as the city was stopped on its tracks by sudden, sharp showers on Monday, leading to traffic jams well into the night, the body of a 26-year-old software engineer, who was killed in a road accident, was left unattended on the busy IT corridor for over three hours. As vehicles threaded past impatiently, his body remained in the stagnant water on the service road with shocked colleagues standing guard until help finally arrived way past midnight.
S Gopinath, a native of Naatrampalli in Vellore district, who was a Tata Consultancy Services, Siruseri, employee, was returning to his room in Sholinganallur after work when he met with the accident around 9.30 pm.
Guindy traffic investigation officials said his two-wheeler skid and he suffered a head injury despite wearing a helmet. “Personnel from the 108 ambulance service attended to him and declared him dead on the spot,” a police officer said.
However, due to heavy traffic, mortuary vans couldn’t reach the spot to ferry his body to the morgue. According to a policeman attached to Guindy traffic investigation, “It took more than an hour even for us to reach the scene due to the traffic jam. It was difficult to find a mortuary van at that time and the traffic made things worse,” the officer told Express.
Gopinath’s colleagues, who followed his bike, had to stand guard near his body until midnight before help arrived.
“We have an ambulance of a private hospital on our campus in Siruseri. But to our shock, they reached the spot and left after confirming he was dead, refusing to take the body to the mortuary. They should have been more humane,” said one of his colleagues.
Later, some of his associates moved the body to a service road nearby, where it lay in stagnant water.
“Most of the office cabs were not plying at that time due to traffic. Luckily, three hours later, a friend contacted the admin team and arranged for help.”
Gopinath’s body was moved to the Government Royapettah Hospital later in the night and handed over to his family members after autopsy.