Ten occupants of a passenger van died and five others sustained injuries when the vehicle rammed a truck fitted with borewell rig at Thuvarankurichi in the district in the late hours on Wednesday.
The fatal accident occurred on the Tiruchi–Madurai national highway near the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation depot. Among the dead were three women, a 10-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy. All the victims hailed from different places in Kanniyakumari district.
Police sources said the van with 14 passengers on board was proceeding to Tirupati from Therkupulam near Nagercoil when the accident occurred.
The truck with Karnataka registration number was on its way to Thuvarankurichi from Madurai, said the police.
All the victims died on the spot and rescuers had a tough time extricating the bodies and the injured from the mangled remains of the van.
The sources said five persons in the van including the driver M. Rakesh – also of Kanniyakumari district – who suffered injuries were rushed to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital at Tiruchi for treatment as in-patients.
Police identified the names of the deceased as S. Vaithilingam,79; C. Natarajan, 45; A. Swarna, 48; S. Ayyappan, 52; N. Chandrakumar, 46; V. Pushpakala, 68; V. Eswaran, 38; E. Neela, 28; C. Nadip, 5; and N. Jayasanthiya, 10.
Vulnerable point
Superintendent of Police P.S.C. Kalyan and senior police officers rushed to the accident spot and conducted inquiries besides regulating vehicular movements in the odd hours on the highway.
Police believe that the driver of the passenger van proceeding at high speed might have lost control of the vehicle leading to the collision.
The vehicle with the borewell rig was about to take a turn towards Thuvarankurichi when the speeding van rammed, said Mr. Kalyan.
The place where the accident occurred was not a “black spot” but a vulnerable point, he said adding that it was the first major fatal accident to have occurred at that spot.
The driver of the borewell rig, C. Chandrasekar, 39, has been named as the accused, said the sources. Since the casualties were high, investigation would be done by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Manapparai, said the police. The Thuvarankurichi police have registered a case.
The bodies were handed over to the relatives after completion of post-mortem at the Tiruchi Government Hospital.
