Four accidents in 24 hours: tragedies test Tambaram

On old GST Road, Irumbuliyur, a sports utility vehicle ploughed into a thatched house on Sunday night. Sriramulu, who was standing outside the house, was killed.

A container loory lost control and in Anakaputhur in the early hours of Monday. A cleaner was killed. Photo: M. Srinath

Three people were killed in separate accidents in and around Tambaram on Sunday night and early Monday morning.

In another incident, a private bus went up in flames on Grand Southern Trunk Road, but no one was hurt.

Police officer dies

A special sub-inspector (SSI) attached to the Guduvanchery police station succumbed on Monday to injuries he sustained in an accident on Sunday night.

Krishnan, (55) and another SSI Adimoolam (56), were on their way to Urapakkam on their night rounds, when around 9 p.m., a car hit their motorcycle on GST Road.

Krishnan, who was riding, sustained head injuries and was rushed to SRM Medical College, where he succumbed on Monday morning.

Guduvanchery police, who are investigating, said Krishnan had been wearing a helmet. His colleague was unhurt. The car driver, S. Narayanan (28), has been arrested.

SUV rams auto

Around the same time, a sport utility vehicle rammed an autorickshaw parked near a thatched house on old GST Road in Irumbuliyur, Tambaram. The driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle. In the impact, the autorickshaw fell on a bystander, Sriramulu (60), who succumbed to injuries on Monday.

Lorries collide

In another accident that took place at 2 a.m. on Monday, a 45-year-old cleaner of a container lorry died after the vehicle rammed another lorry parked on the margins of Chennai Bypass. Police said Anandan was driving a container lorry from Tiruchi to Bihar.

Due to poor visibility, Anandan had not noticed the parked lorry.

In the impact, the container lorry swerved to the right, went over the median, hit the safety rails on the opposite side and came to halt after hitting a tree while hurtling down a slope. Loganathan of Thuraiyur, Tiruchi, the cleaner, died on the spot.

Bus catches fire

A private air-conditioned bus on its way to Chennai was almost completely destroyed after it caught fire in Vandalur on Monday morning.

The driver, R. Shiva Shankar (31), sensing something wrong, brought his vehicle to a halt on the margins of GST Road. He opened the rear section, and found smoke emanating from the engine. He alerted the passengers, who were fast asleep and made them disembark. He also tried putting out the fire with the help of his crew, but in vain.

The blaze gutted the bus. Fire service personnel from Tambaram and Maraimalai Nagar rushed their fire tenders and put out the fire. No one was hurt.