CHENNAI: A 37-year-old man burned to death and five others sustained injuries after three lorries rammed each other at Singaperumal Koil in the wee hours of Thursday. One of the lorries also caught fire following the collision. Tambaram Traffic Investigation Wing police identified the deceased as Chandrasekar of Puducherry. He was employed with lorry driver Maruthupandi (31) of Dindigul.
Chandrasekar and one Sivaraj (36) of Puducherry was sitting beside Maruthupandi, who was behind the wheel, when the accident occurred. While Chandrasekar died on the spot, Sivaraj and Maruthupandi survived with injuries.
“Around 1 am on Thursday, a private company’s lorry was heading to Oragadam from Maraimalai Nagar. When the vehicle reached Singaperumal Koil on Chennai-Tiruchy highway, it was rammed by another lorry that was travelling behind it. Owing to the impact, the private company’s lorry collided with another lorry that was plying in front of it, causing the third vehicle to turn turtle and drag along the road for some distance. While dragging along the road, the vehicle caught fire and this led to Chandrasekar’s death,” police said.
Upon information, police rushed to the spot along with fire tenders from Maraimalai Nagar. The fire was put out after nearly an hour. Chandrasekar’s body was sent to Chengalpattu Government Hospital for postmortem, and the five injured people were sent to Chengalpattu Government Hospital. The traffic on the highway was disrupted for over an hour following the accident. Police have filed a case and further investigation is underway.