On Monday morning, five persons were killed and five others injured when a lorry crashed into the verandahs of their houses, set in a row, at Puduchatram near Thirumazhisai, nearly 40 km from Chennai. As the lorry driver is absconding, the reason for the vehicle going out of control could not be ascertained.
The four tiled-roof houses, over fifty years old, are situated along the nearly 60-feet wide Tiruvallur-Poonamalee High Road. Around 4 a.m. on Monday, a lorry that was heading towards Chennai ploughed through the verandahs, on which 10 persons, all of them relatives, were sleeping.
All the ten were rushed to the Tiruvallur Government Hospital, Kilpauk Government hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. Five of them succumbed to injuries.
The deceased have been identified as Dasarathan (55); his wife Angammal (45); their son Jeeva (17) who just completed his class 12; their relative Thyagarajan (25) and his son Madesh (2). The injured have been identified as Thyagarajan’s father Ramakrishnan, Dasarathan’s brother Vimalakannan (44), his wife Amaravathi (35), their son Praveen and Yashodha (75), Vimalakannan’s mother-in-law. Speaking to The Hindu, Vimalakannan, who has been admitted to the orthopaedic ward in Tiruvallur General Hospital, said that he remembered being woken up by a huge noise.
“When I woke up, I saw a lorry running over my brother Dasarathan and his family, and then Thyagarajan and his son. I woke my family members and tried to save them. We escaped with injuries,” he recalled.
Amaravathi, who was being treated on the bed adjacent to her husband, said she faintly remembered seeing the lorry. “I heard the sound of people wailing. By the time I knew what happened, I was knocked unconscious. Everything happened in a few minutes and it was terrible,” she said.In Puduchatram, relatives of Dasarathan erected a pandal near the damaged homes. Mangled two-wheelers and cycles and debris that illustrated the horror. “Four years ago, a similar accident happened. However, only the lorry driver died then,” said N. Balaji, a relative of the victims. “We have petitioned the government officials many times to shift our house to some vacant land on the other side of the road. It has become very dangerous to live here,” he added.
Residents also complained that the government had not introduced any measures to reduce the speed of vehicles, especially lorries, which passed through highways along which houses and shops are located.
“We even staged protests when the accident took place last time, but no action has been taken. Many families are living in a dangerous condition,” N. Nandakumar, another relative, said.
Teachers of the Panchayat Union Primary school opposite the victims’ houses said that speeding vehicles posed a threat to children.
