A speeding pick-up van driven by a driver, reportedly under the influence of alcohol, killed two persons - S. Vidhya Devi, 52, and driver S. Sooryaprakash, 26, of Sivakasi - as it hit a car proceeding in the opposite lane near Pandalgudi on Saturday night.
The police said that K. Subramanian, 59, of Sivakasi, along with wife, Vidhya Devi, went to Madurai and picked up her daughter Malaiyarasi, 27, and her children there and visited his daughter-in-law at Vilathikulam in Thoothukudi district.
When they were returning to Madurai, a van, which was proceeding from Coimbatore to Thoothukudi, was going on at a high speed. The driver S. Sahaya Sundar, 46, of Thoothukudi, who was allegedly drunk, lost control of the vehicle while passing through Velayuthapuram on Madurai-Thoothukudi highway.
After hitting the median, the vehicle rammed the car and pushed it down the road to a gorge. In the impact, the woman and the driver were killed. The injured, including the father, daughter and her children, A. Sivaguru (5) and A. Gurudev (3), were admitted to a private hospital in Madurai.
Pandalgudi police have registered a case.
Meanwhile, in another accident near Sattur, Siluvai Anthony Saveriyal, 75, of Tirunelveli district, was killed when the car in which she was travelling hit a road-side concrete platform, on Saturday. A school teacher P. Uvan Ken Reeta, 48, picked up her mother Saveriyal from Tirunelveli to proceed to her brother's house in Kodaikanal to attend a festival.
Reeta's husband, Pugazhendi, who was driving the car, lost control of the vehicle. While the couple suffered bleeding injuries, the elderly woman died after she was slammed against the front seat in the impact of the accident. The injured have been admitted to the Government Hospital in Kovilpatti.
