Woman passenger crushed to death after tree falls on auto

CHENNAI: A 38-year-old woman, a person with disability died in an accident after a tree uprooted and fell on an autorickshaw in which she was traveling on North Boag Road in T Nagar on Saturday evening.

The deceased woman on Saturday's incident was identified as Suryah Arasakumar, a resident of West Mada Street in Nungambakkam. She was working as a staff at TIIC (Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation) in Nandanam.

She boarded the autorickshaw near her office and was traveling home when the accident happened.

Eight months ago, a bank manager, Vani Kabilan (57), was killed in a similar incident after a tree fell on the moving car in KK Nagar.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the roots of the tree were disturbed because of a construction around the tree. On Saturday evening, as the auto was moving along North Boag road, the tree got uprooted and fell on the vehicle.

While the auto driver, Sekar managed to escape in the nick of time, but the passenger got stuck in the seat.

A police team that reached the scene deployed a crane and lifted the tree and rescued the woman who was sent to the Government Royapettah Hospital, where she was declared brought dead.