Three persons, including a seven-year-old boy were killed in a road accident on East Coast Road in Keezha Shanmugapuram village near Surangudi on Sunday. Three others were injured and admitted in Thoothukudi Government Medical College Hospital.
Police said that R Silambarasan, 35, of Thangachimadam in Ramanathapuram district collected old newspapers, used plastic bottles and other wastes in a tri-cycle. Along with him, his wife Thangammal, 32, another worker Mariammal, 60, and Satish, 7, travelled to different cities and collected the waste. They would then sell them to wholesale shops in Thoothukudi and move on to other towns.
On Sunday, when they were engaged in their work at Keezha Shanmugapuram village and were proceeding on ECR on their tri-cycle, a speeding car proceeding from Kanniyakumari to Velankanni hit the tri-cycle.
In the collision, Thangammal, Mariammal and Satish died on the spot, while Silambarasan and two occupants in the car identified as Selvaraj,55, and his wife Kumari Thangam, 49, suffered injuries and were admitted in hospital.
The three bodies were sent to Vilathikulam Government Hospital for post-mortem.
Preliminary inquiry revealed that the car was driven by Selvaraj’s son, police said.
Meanwhile, residents in Keezha Shanmugapuram said that speed breakers and adequate barricades alone would help reduce speeding vehicles to slow down near habitations as vehicles drove at high speed on ECR.
A majority of the travelling public from cities like Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari districts used ECR to go to destinations such as Rameswaram, Nagapattinam, Velankanni and Chennai. Hence, the stretch was always busy with vehicles criss-crossing on both sides.
