Five persons, including a teacher couple, two other teachers and a constable from the Armed Reserve Police force attached to Chennai, were killed when their car rammed into a lorry at the National Highway at Palayampudur near Thoppur on Saturday midnight.
The accident took place when the couple M. Shanmugam, 31, and S. Sornambigai, 30, working in private schools, were taking their two-year-old child S. Hari to a private hospital in Salem from Pulikarai village in Dharmapuri district. Shanmugam's friends K. Rajakannu, 30, P. Selvam, 30, both private school teachers hailing from Pulikarai village and a Constable S. Ramanikumar (30) of Kattumannar Koil, Cuddalore District, who accompanied the couple, were also killed in the accident.
The child Hari and car driver C. Raghu, 25, hailing from Pulikarai village, escaped with injuries. Both of them were admitted to the Dharmapuri Medical College Hospital for treatment.
R. Sudhakar, Superintendent of Police, and Shahul Hameed, Deputy Superintendent of Police, visited the accident spot.
Owing to the accident, traffic on the National Highway leading to Salem was affected for sometime.
The lorry driver escaped after the accident. Thoppur police have registered a case and investigating.
