Five killed in a bizarre chain of accidents on Tamil Nadu highway near Trichy

india

Updated: Aug 07, 2019 22:26 IST

Five persons were killed when a car in which they were travelling hit an incoming vehicle after one of its tyres burst, triggering a chain of collisions involving a total of seven vehicles near Narthamalai town on the Trichy-Pudukottai national highway in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday evening.

Police in Pudukottai district said 15 others, including seven women and four children, injured in the accident were being treated at the Pudukottai Government Medical College Hospital. The condition of one of them is stated to be very critical.

According to police, the victims were proceeding to Trichy from Pudukottai when a wheel-burst resulted in the driver losing control. The car collided head on with a vehicle coming from the opposite direction.

Three vehicles following the car and two others following the vehicle it collided with-- coming from the opposite direction—were also drawn into the accident, leading to the death of three of the victims, including a woman, on the spot. One more succumbed to the injuries on the way to hospital and another died at a hospital in Pudukottai, police said.

The victims were identified as the driver Rangaraj (28), Chidambaram (35), Selvam (50), Nagarathinam (65) and Nagalakshmi (55), all hailing from Thodaiyur, near Narthamalai.

Pudukottai Superintendent of Police S Selvaraj visited the accident site and supervised relief and rescue operations.

The Narthamalai police have registered a case and are taking steps to conduct postmortem of the victims.