Seven drivers, including two brothers, and a conductor killed.

Eight crew members of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (Kumbakonam) Ltd., including two brothers employed as drivers, were crushed to death when the roof of an employees’ resting room collapsed at the Porayar bus depot in Nagapattinam district early on Friday morning.

The roof reportedly crashed on them while they were fast asleep on the first floor which also caved in, burying them under the debris. The incident took place at around 3.30 a.m. when crew members who had finished duty late and others who were to go on duty early in the morning were resting inside the 75-year-old building.

Last month, a roof at a bus stand at Somanur in Coimbatore district collapsed, killing five persons and injuring many others.

In Friday’s incident, seven of the deceased were drivers — M. Anbarasan, P. Manivannan, T. Dhanapal, J. Prabakaran, R. Chandrasekaran, S. Muniappan and J. Balu — and the other was a conductor, G. Ramalingam. The dead included brothers Prabakaran and Balu. The bodies were retrieved by Fire and Rescue Services personnel. Earthmovers had to be used to clear the debris.

Three injured employees, S.Venkatesan and J.Senthil Kumar, conductors, and G. Premkumar, driver, were admitted to the Karaikal Government Hospital. “I was fast asleep and woke up to find myself trapped in debris,” said Premkumar.

K. Prakash, an employee who managed to escape unhurt because he had been sleeping close to a wall, said he heard a loud noise and there was dust all over, leaving him dazed for a while.

Employees’ protest

TNSTC employees who had assembled at the crack of dawn at the depot staged a protest demanding action against higher officials for ignoring their complaints regarding the safety of the building. They also criticised officials of the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health and the Public Works Department for certifying the building’s stability overlooking the dilapidation. The employees said they were forced to take rest in the unsafe building.