Date:29/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/29/stories/2008062957600100.htm

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Five killed in accidents on Velachery Main Road

Special Correspondent

— Photo: A. Muralitharan

MANGLED: The car involved in a multiple collision, in which two persons were killed at Gowrivakkam on Velachery Main Road on Saturday.

TAMBARAM: Five persons, including an academic, were killed in accidents at different places on Velachery Main Road since Friday night. Two of them were hit-and-run cases.

In the first accident at Pallikaranai on Friday night, N.Ellappan (28) was hit by an unknown vehicle while peeping out of a share autorickshaw. He was taken to the Government General Hospital in Chennai where he succumbed to injuries on Saturday morning. He was returning home, along with five relatives, after having dinner at a friend’s house nearby.

Around 6 a.m. on Saturday, a senior citizen died on the spot after an unknown vehicle hit him near Rajakilpakkam. Palanivelu (62), a former staff of the Indian Air Force, resided at Parasakthi Nagar in Selaiyur. He was returning home after morning walk. Nobody noticed the vehicle or took down its registration number.

A 55-year-old man, Muthu of Nuthanchery village near Madambakkam, died on the spot when his motorcycle was hit by a speeding water tanker at Mahalakshmi Nagar, close to Rajakilpakkam, around 10 a.m. Employed in a private firm, Muthu was on his way to office, the police said.

Two persons were killed in a multiple collision at Gowrivakkam around 2.30 p.m.

P.Joel Christopher, the 52-year-old head of the Department of Botany, Madras Christian College, died on the spot when his car rammed into a sports utility vehicle (SUV). Eyewitnesses told the police that Joel Christopher had hit a two-wheeler going ahead of his vehicle. He then lost control over the car, which jumped over the median, landed on the opposite side and collided with the SUV.

The two-wheeler rider, Daranipathy, who was dragged for some distance, was rushed to a hospital at Porur where he died in the evening. The SUV driver is undergoing treatment for injuries, the Tambaram traffic police said.

Angry residents said the accidents were a result of complete failure of government agencies in curbing overspeeding and rash driving.

They also blamed authorities for their inability to crack down on encroachments all along Velachery Main Road that ate into the road space.