MADURAI: In a freak accident, a heart patient was among three killed as a car collided with an overturned private ambulance on the Kappalur bypass near Chokanathampatti in Madurai district on Sunday afternoon.
The deceased were K Saravana Ganesh (32), who was the patient; his friend and attendant, G Pradeep (37), both from Thirumangalam; and a college student, S Athiya (19) of Thoothukudi who was in the car.
Two occupants of the car who sustained critical injuries were admitted to a private hospital in Madurai. The ambulance driver, Ananadakumar, sustained only minor injuries in the accident, said police.
The accident happened when the ambulance was on its way to a private hospital in Madurai from another private hospital at Thirumangalam.
It is suspected that the ambulance driver lost control of the vehicle before it crossed the centre median and toppled on the carriageway.
Meanwhile, a car driven by S Murthy from Thoothukudi hit the ambulance that toppled, killing his brother Athiya on the spot.
These two brothers, along with their mother Sowrnalakshmi, were on their way to Erode to drop Athiya at his college. Sowrnalakshmi and Murthy have critical injuries, said police.
The Thirumangalam Town police shifted the injured to hospitals. The bodies were sent to the Government Rajaji Hospital for postmortem.