COIMBATORE: A 26-year-old man from Tiruppur died after his bike plunged into an eight-foot-deep pit dug up for the construction of a culvert as part of a road renovation work at Nettachellapalayam in Erode on Wednesday night. Lack of adequate lighting, barricades, and reflective warning signs to alert motorists at the site may have led to the accident, sources said.
The deceased was identified as V Yoganathan (26) of Odaikadu in Tiruppur district. He was employed as a driver and is survived by his wife and son.
According to police, Yoganathan had visited the Perundurai IRT Medical College Hospital on Wednesday evening, where his sister was undergoing treatment.
Sources said the road renovation work, being executed on 2.5km stretch between Karandipalayam Pudur and Kinipalayam Elementary School, has been going on for nearly two months under the Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI) scheme. Workers had dug up the pit as part of the culvert construction work that began two days ago.
After being alerted by the locals on Thursday morning, a team from the Perundurai police station rushed to the spot, retrieved Yoganathan’s body, and sent it to the Perundurai Government Hospital for postmortem.
On Thursday, police arrested the contractor in charge of the road work. Investigation is under way to determine whether negligence and lack of safety precautions led to the youth’s death.