A one and a half-year-old child was killed in an accident in Annanur near Avadi on Monday, after he came under the rear wheel of the school bus that picked up his two brothers.
The accident occurred in less than a week since a school bus claimed a six year old girl’s life in an accident in Mudichur.
The victim, Sanjay, was the third son of Anand who runs a tea shop and Meena. Police said the boy, along with his mother, came to see off his brothers, Santhosh and Sudhakar who were leaving for school.
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The accident happened when the vehicle, which was waiting outside their house, moved forward. The boy sustained injuries on his face and head, and died on the spot. His body was sent to Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital.
According to eye witnesses, Meena had left Sanjay in the veranda near the gate and stepped out to help her two other sons, Santhosh and Sudhakar get into the vehicle. Sanjay, meanwhile, walked up to the vehicle and went beneath it.
In a short while, tension and grief gripped Pillaiyar Koil Street area and angry residents damaged the windows of the vehicle.
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Poonamallee traffic investigation police recovered the vehicle and registered a case under section 304 (A) of the Indian Penal Code (causing death due to negligence). The bus driver Mohan (50) was arrested.
Sanjay’s brothers took the school bus for the first time on Monday. Usually, Anand would take the children to school in his two-wheeler.
As he found it difficult to get to work in the morning, the couple decided to send the boys by the bus belonging to Little Holy Angel’s Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Ayapakkam.
“The vehicle came near our home around 8.30 a.m. I helped the children into the bus. I went to the other side to enquire about the bus fees. By the time I turned, it was all over. Only after the vehicle moved a few metres away, I realised what had happened,” said an inconsolable Meena, Sanjay’s mother.
M. Viswanathan, owner of the house in which the family currently stays as tenants, said the couple and their children had been living there for nearly three years.
“This is the last stop for the school bus. I heard some noise and ran behind the vehicle, following it a few metres. The driver did not know what had happened. We took Sanjay to a hospital nearby, but he was declared dead,” he said.
It may be recalled that a similar accident that happened nearly a decade ago at Velachery when a six-year-old boy was knocked down by a school van, raising serious concerns about children’s safety.