Five persons were killed and 19 others injured in a road accident on the Tiruchi - Rameswaram National Highway when a speeding truck ran over pilgrims who were standing on the roadside near a tea shop at Namanasamuthiram in Pudukottai district in the early hours of Saturday.
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According to police, the accident happened around 12.20 a.m. near Sebastiyapuram in Namanasamuthiram police station limits when the driver of a cement-loaded truck, plying from Ariyalur district to Sivaganga district, lost control of the vehicle and hit two tourist vans and a car parked on the roadside and rammed into a tea shop.
The passengers of the tourist vehicles were pilgrims from various places in Chennai and Tiruvallur districts, bound towards Rameswaram and Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala. Some passengers were standing near the tea shop when the speeding truck ran over them.
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Five persons died on the spot in the accident. They were identified as Suresh, 39, of Maduravoyal; Gokulakrishnan, 25, of Tiruvallur; Sathish, 25, of Aminjikarai; Jeganathan, 60, and Shanthi, 55, both natives of Uthukottai, said police sources.
Their dead bodies were shifted to the Government Pudukkottai Medical College and Hospital for postmortem. Nineteen others who suffered injuries were also admitted to the same hospital as in-patients.
The Namanasamuthiram police have registered a case under Section 304 (A) (Causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code against the truck driver Manikandan, 39, who also suffered injuries. Police sources said further investigations are on.
T.N. CM announces solatium
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin expressed grief over the death of the five persons and announced a solatium of ₹2 lakh each to the families of the deceased; ₹1 lakh each to severely injured persons and ₹50,000 each to persons with minor injuries. In a statement, he said he had instructed officials to provide special care to the injured.