TIRUVANNAMALAI: Three persons were killed in a road accident when a government bus collided head-on with a pickup van at Chengam in Tiruvannamalai on Saturday.
According to the Chengam police, the accident happened at Manmalai within the Chengam police station limits in the morning. The government bus, carrying 46 passengers, was going from Bengaluru to Tiruvannamalai and the pickup van was transporting flowers. The police said the accident happened when the bus tried to overtake another bus and collided with the van coming from the opposite direction.
Chengam Inspector Santhi said the deceased have been identified as Mani (27), the van driver; Arumugham (45), the van owner, and Govindraj (30), who was accompanying them. Mani died on the spot and the other two died on the way to the hospital. A postmortem was performed at the Tiruvannamalai Government Hospital. None of the passengers in the bus sustained any injury in the impact.
Santhi said a case has been registered against the bus driver for rash driving and causing death by negligence under Sections 281 and 106 (1) of BNS. However, he is yet to be arrested, she added.
Speaking to the TNIE, Kathiresan, Branch Manager of TNSTC Hosur Depot, from where the bus service operates, said they have not yet taken any action against the driver as the police investigation is under way. Any decision will follow that, he added.