A trip to school on Saturday morning proved fatal for an eight-year-old girl, who was run over by an MTC bus on the Ambattur-Red Hills Road in Kallikkuppam. The accident took place around 9 a.m.
The child, B. Rohini, a class III student of Velammal Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Surapet, left from her home in Gangai Amman Nagar, Ambattur, riding pillion on her father Balaji’s scooter. Usually her mother Deepa dropped her to school in an autorickshaw, but as Saturday was a half-day at school, Balaji had decided to drop her on his two-wheeler.
Speaking to The Hindu, Rajan, a shop owner, who witnessed the accident said, “The man was riding parallel to an MTC bus. Suddenly, the scooter slipped when it went over a pothole on the road. It hit the bus and the man fell on the left, while the child fell on the right side of the road. She came under the rear wheels of the bus.”
Balaji who suffered injuries on his shoulder, immediately ran and picked his daughter up from under the bus and rushed her to a hospital in an autorickshaw. But she had died on the spot.
The MTC bus, (route number 62 Poonamallee to Red Hills), was driven by Ravi (33), who was arrested by Poonamallee traffic police.
Rohin’s parents, Balaji an assistant manager with a car manufacturer, and Deepa, a homemaker, shifted from Korattur to Surapet a year ago, after Rohini was admitted to Velammal School, police said.
Local shopkeepers blamed the severely damaged road, saying that it was because Balaji’s scooter ran over a pothole that the child fell.
