CHENNAI: Four college students riding footboard were crushed to death when the bus on which they were travelling brushed against a container lorry parked on the roadside on the Tiruchy-Chennai highway near Sirunagalur village of Chengalpattu on Tuesday.
Police said the driver, who realised late that the bus may crash against the stationary truck, tried to veer off the vehicle but the students who were travelling on the rear entrance footboard got crushed between the lorry and the bus and died in the impact.
Four others were also injured but police said they were out of danger. A case has been registered and an inquiry is on. Police said a case has been booked against the drivers of the vehicles and the bus conductor, but the conductor has gone underground.
According to the Melmaruvathur police, the deceased were identified as M Dhanush (18) of Mogalvadi, M Kamalesh (19) of Ramapuram,
S Monish (18) of Sothupakkam, and G Ravichandran (19). They were all students of a private college in Madurantakam. A police officer said, “Around 8.45am, several people, including college students, boarded a private bus heading to Madurantakam from Melmaruvathur.
Some of the students, including the four deceased, were standing on the footboard. As the bus was travelling along the Tiruchy-Chennai Highway near Sirunagalur village, the driver tried to swerve to his right to avoid ramming into a container lorry that was parked on the roadside.
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But the rear portion of the bus came in close contact with the truck and the people standing on the rear footboard hit the lorry.”
While three students died on the spot, Ravichandran and four others were rushed to a hospital. Upon information, the Melmaruvathur police recovered the bodies and sent them for postmortem. Sometime later, Ravichandran succumbed to his injuries at the Melmaruvathur government hospital. The other injured are still under treatment.
A senior police officer told TNIE, “We have booked a case against lorry driver P Muthukumar (25) of Ramanathapuram, bus driver M Sundaramurthy (52) of Vikravandi and the bus conductor. We have detained Muthukumar and Sundramurthy and the conductor is absconding.
After an inquiry, the two of them will be sent to judicial remand.” Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday condoled the deaths and announced a solatium of Rs 2 lakh each to the family of the deceased. There are frequent buses on the stretch but during peak hours, people who are in a hurry prefer to board government or private bus that arrives at the stop first, a police source said.
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Three people died and three others were injured when a sugarcane truck keeled over onto a van on the Dhimbam ghat road in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve on Tuesday. The accident happened when the lorry driver tried to take a turn at a hairpin bend.