A speeding container truck fatally ran over a police constable while he attempted to stop it near Thittuparai check-post in Kangeyam, Tiruppur district in the late hours, on Monday.
Police said that T. Prabu, 25, a constable from the Armed Reserve, and Loganathan, head constable from Kangeyam police station, were posted at the check-post on Monday. They received information in the night that a container truck from Erode district did not stop at any check-posts and was heading towards Tiruppur district.
At around 11 p.m., the speeding truck damaged the check-post at Thittuparai in Kangeyam, and sped away. “The public asked for help [to stop the truck] because it was going berserk,” said the District Superintendent of Police, Disha Mittal. Prabu chased the truck on his two-wheeler and attempted to stop the driver. However, the truck hit the two-wheeler without stopping, killing the constable on the spot.
Following this incident, a police team managed to chase the speeding truck down. “The truck was empty and no contraband was found inside,” Ms. Mittal told The Hindu . The truck driver Baskaran, 40, was secured on Monday night. The speeding truck narrowly avoided a crash at a fuel station in Erode district en route to Kangeyam, which could have resulted in a major blast, the SP noted.
Kangeyam police registered a case against the truck driver under sections 279 (Rash driving or riding on a public way) and 304A (Causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code. Further investigations, including efforts to ascertain whether he was inebriated while driving recklessly, are under way.