CHENNAI: In a tragic accident in the city, a one-and-a-half year old child and his father, Manikumar, both of whom were riding on a motorcycle along with the child’s mother, were run over by an MTC bus at Nandambakkam on Monday, killing both of them on the spot.
Passersby on the Mt Poonamalle Road blamed it on the MTC bus, saying an attempt by the route 49 bus to overtake a vehicle resulted in the gory accident around 8.30 am.
“The bus was overtaking a bike on the narrow stretch near the bridge over Adyar river. The side of the bus
hit the bike and it skidded. Both the father and child came under the rear wheels of the bus,” said Malini, a passerby who witnessed the accident.
However, the police said a lorry moving ahead of the bus brushed the bike, after which Manikumar lost control of the vehicle and the bike skidded on the road. “The MTC bus ran over them after they fell on the road due to the impact,” said a police officer.
Manikumar was working as a technician in the Chennai airport expansion project under a contractor. Police said he was taking his son Praveen Kumar and wife Parvathi from his home at Poonamalle to a function at a relative’s house in Saidapet on Monday.
Parvathi (23), the lone survivor in the family, fell on the other side of the road, escaping the wheels. She suffered injuries on her hands and head and was rushed by passers-by to a multi-speciality hospital located just a few metres away from the spot.
As both Manikumar and the child died on the spot, passersby pulled down a cloth banner on the roadside to cover the bodies.
Following the accident, local residents staged a protest for nearly 30 minutes against rashly driven lorries and buses on the stretch.
The St Thomas Mount traffic investigation wing has registered a case and are looking out for the bus and lorry drivers.