A 13-year-old schoolboy was run over by a garbage-laden lorry belonging to the Chennai Corporation, when he was riding a bicycle, leading to a road blockade by local residents for nearly two hours on Ambedkar Road at MKB Nagar in Vyasarpadi on Thursday afternoon.
Police sources said that the victim Irfan Ali was one of five children of Hyder Ali, a resident of Sixth Street in Thanjai Nagar. A class-VIII student at a local school, Irfan was going to Pulianthope to meet his father, who was working as a tailor, when he was hit by the lorry.
Residents vented their ire on the vehicle and damaged it even as driver Shankaran (60), a resident of Perumbur, escaped.
The residents said that this was not the first time an over-speeding lorry had killed a student. “Three months ago, a student who was walking on the road in MKB Nagar was knocked down by a lorry. We fear to walk on the roads as lorry drivers over-speed even in crowded areas,” Balu, a resident said.
Senior police officials arrived at the spot and pacified the protesters by assuring action, following which they dispersed. Kilpauk Traffic Investigation Police registered a case and arrested the driver Shankaran, a contract employee, later in the day.
He was booked under sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC.