Eight killed in two accidents near Chennai

Eight people were killed in two separate accidents on national highways on Sunday.

While one accident took place on Grand Southern (GST) Road in Kattankulathur, the second occurred on the Chennai-Tirupati National Highway.

At Kattankulathur, four people, including a seven-year-old boy, were killed and 13 others were injured when a goods carrier rammed a stationary mini van on GST Road on Sunday afternoon. The van was hired by a group of families from Annamalaicheri, Ponneri taluk in Tiruvallur district, who were on their way to the Angalaparameswari Amman temple in Melmalaiyanur, Villupuram district.

The van was parked on the roadside near the Block Development Office, Kattankulathur, after it developed a snag. Except for three of the vehicle’s occupants — Thesappan, Gajendran and Lokesh (7) — the others got down to have snacks, the Kattankulathur police said.

The speeding goods carrier, which was on its way to Chengalpattu from Tambaram, rammed the mini van and a cement sheet-roofed building on the roadside, before coming to a halt.

In the impact, the van turned turtle, killing the three occupants and Velu (45) who was inside the building at the time of the accident, on the spot. Four others — Desammal, Monisha, Sakthivel and Sellathurai — were admitted at a private hospital in Kattankulathur. Nine others are receiving treatment at Chengalpattu Medical College Hospital.

Drivers of both vehicles are absconding.

Four of a family killed

Earlier in the day, four of a family from Kancheepuram were killed when the SUV in which they were travelling fell into a culvert at Tadukupeta village on the Chennai-Tirupati National Highway, four km from Nagari. The family was returning home after visiting the Lord Venkateswara temple, from where they left around midnight on Saturday.

Around 2 a.m. on Sunday, P.S. Kandaswamy alias Ravi Sha (55), who was driving the vehicle, lost control and rammed it into the culvert, the Tiruvallur district police said. He, his brothers, P.S. Kannan (50) and P.S. Ramesh (56), and their sister, Ratna Bhai (54), died on the spot.

Lakshmi Bhai and Padma Bhai, wives of Kandaswamy and Kannan respectively, are being treated at a private hospital in Chennai.