In a second major accident on the Chennai-Tirupati road in the last three days, three women travelling in a mini-bus were killed and 17 injured when the vehicle overturned after a head-on collision with an MUV in the small hours of Monday.
This comes close on the heels of an accident on this stretch on Saturday evening, in which one person was killed and 20 others of a marriage party were injured.
The mini-bus, carrying members of a family, mostly from Singaperumal Koil village in Kancheepuram district, was returning after a visit to Tirupati. Around 1 am, when the van was passing Nedumbaram village near Tiruttani, the driver, in an attempted to overtake a bus, collided with the approaching MUV.
“The van driver applied brakes causing the vehicle to topple and skid off the road,” said a police constable, who visited the spot.
Almost all the 15 passengers of the mini-bus were injured. Passersby and locals called an ambulance. One of the passengers, Easwari (59), died on the spot and two others — Nirmala (30) and Bhuvaneswari (45) — died at the government hospital.
Driver of the MUV Stephan Raj also suffered injuries and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital.
“Baskar, a resident of Singaperumal Koil, had organised the trip as he wished to tonsure his two children — Harish and Kanishka — in Tirumala. Some of his relatives had also come to the temple. Poor visibility due to rains and poor lighting could be factors that led to the accident,” said a police officer.
“Due to heavy rains, the markings on the road were erased. So we are trying to gather clues about the accident from the position of the vehicles. There was no median on the road,” said deputy superintendent of police (Tiruttani) N Gopalan.
Police said a total of 17 persons are injured, of which four suffered severe injuries and were referred to a hospital in Chennai.
Kanakamma Chathiram police registered a case.