CHENNAI: A rashly driven water tanker snuffed out five lives, including a family of four, at Pallavaram on Friday. The tanker, belonging to the Cantonment Board, was moving on the wrong side of the Old Trunk road when it brushed against a parked car damaging its headlight. It then mowed down a pedestrian, who was apparently waving at the driver to stop the vehicle, and hit a motorbike in which four of a family, including a toddler, was travelling.
The bike was dragged for a few metres by the lorry during which its wheels ran over M Preethi (23), mother of toddler Dia, killing her on the spot. Preethi’s husband J Mahesh Kumar (34), who was riding the bike, died a few minutes later even as he was being rushed to hospital in an ambulance.
Two-and-half years-old Dia, seated on the petrol tank, and her grandmother J Saroja (65), who was seated at the end of the pillion, sustained grievous injuries. They were rushed to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. But within two hours, by 11.30 am, both succumbed to injuries.
“The family was headed to the weekly shandy in Pallavaram,” said a police officer. They were residents of Padmanaba Nagar in Polichalur. Mahesh was working in an automobile company while Preethi was a home maker.
But mystery shrouded the identity of the pedestrian killed in the accident until the evening. He also died minutes after the accident on the way to hospital. “He seems to be in his early twenties. But no one knows where he is from and none has come in search of him. But, the lorry driver, Suresh, said he was waving at him after the lorry hit the car,” said a police officer.
Suresh (34) told police that brakes of the vehicle failed resulting in the accident. “The driver said that the air brakes failed due to a mechanical fault. But when our personnel drove the vehicle minutes after the accident, the brakes were functioning very well. So we suspect the driver’s version. He could have lost control of the vehicle after he hit the car,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic Investigation Wing) Mohan Das.
The lorry’s tank was half full at the time of the accident. The lorry was moving on the service road to Pallavaram flyover and had just entered the Old Trunk road from the wrong side when the accident took place at around 9.40 am.
“Usually this road is deserted. So, often vehicles would be plying on the wrong direction. But today the road was congested because of the weekly shandy,” said another police officer.
Chromepet Traffic Investigation Wing have arrested the driver Suresh.