Four persons were killed and five others grievously injured in a pile-up involving 15 vehicles in the Thoppur Ghat on Saturday. It resulted in a traffic snarl running up to a few kilometres along the Salem-Bengaluru National Highway.
The pile-up occurred after a speeding truck rammed a line of vehicles that had slowed down along the ghat road because of an earlier accident.
Earlier in the afternoon, another accident involving a two-wheeler and a mini-van caused a traffic jam. The area was being cordoned off by the police when the Salem- and Coimbatore-bound weekend traffic accumulated on the ghat stretch. It led to a long-winding jam.
Earlier accident
A Salem-bound truck rammed into multiple vehicles before it came to a halt. The crash triggered a pile-up of 12 cars, two mini-lorries and a motor bike, claiming lives.
The dead were Kannan, 40, of Dharmapuri, who was on a two-wheeler; Madhan Kumar, 42, and his driver Karthik, 38, both from Omalur in Salem; and Nithyanandan, 35, from Coimbatore.
Those with grievous injuries were taken to the Salem government medical college hospital and the Dharmapuri government medical college hospital. The truck driver, who caused the pile-up, escaped.
Dharmapuri Collector S.P. Karthika and Minister for Higher Education K.P. Anbalagan visited the spot.
‘Redesign Thoppur road’
PMK youth wing leader Anbumani Ramadoss said the Thoppur road should be redesigned. “More than human errors, the main reason why accidents take place in the area is the absurd design of the road. The PMK has filed a case in Madras High Court but the National Highways Authority of India is refusing to do it. This is the reason for the accidents,” he said.
“During 2017-18, NHAI officials, the traffic police, along with L&T engineers, looked into the road and presented a plan to redesign it at a cost of ₹140 crore. While the Centre initially accepted it, the plan was put on hold on the basis that it can be corrected when the Salem-Bengaluru Highway is converted into a six-lane road. These types of accidents could be averted,” he said.
