COIMBATORE: A 69-year-old man working as a driver of a private school van near Irugur in Coimbatore suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed on the steering wheel on Thursday evening while dropping students back to their homes. The driver, identified by police as S Shanmugasundaram of Mahakavi Nagar, in his final moments, despite briefly losing control of the vehicle, managed to park it safely on the Irugur flyover.
According to police, Shanmugasundaram was employed as a driver for a school van belonging to a private nursery and primary school. He used to pick up children and a few staff members in the morning and drop them home in the evening.
On Thursday evening, as usual, he was taking back more than 30 children and a few staff members. After dropping children in the Ondipudur area, he was heading towards Irugur along the Ondipudur Road. Two staff members and two children were still in the van. As the vehicle climbed the rail overbridge, Shanmugasundaram allegedly suffered a massive cardiac arrest and lost control of the vehicle.
The vehicle hit the parapet wall of the bridge, but he managed to prevent it from tipping over, parked it in a safe spot and collapsed on the steering wheel, sources from the school said. Upon information, a ‘108’ ambulance rushed to the spot and declared him dead after checking his pulse. His body was then shifted to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) for autopsy. The Traffic Investigation Wing (TIW) East police have registered a case.
Meanwhile, police and school management expressed gratitude and lauded Shanmugasundaram’s final efforts to avoid a major accident. Had he not done so, this could have turned into a major tragedy, said one school staff member.