Five pilgrims die, 19 injured as truck runs amok in Pudukkottai

TIRUCHY: In an early morning tragedy, five persons, including a woman, were killed on the spot and 19 others including a child were injured, four of them grievously, after a cement-laden truck ran amok into groups of pilgrims, who had stopped for tea, near Tirumayam in Pudukkottai on Saturday.

A group of 13 persons from Uthukkottai in Tiruvallur district were on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala in a van, while another group of 15 from Tiruvallur was proceeding to Rameswaram temple. Both the groups had stopped their vehicles at Namanasamudram to have tea. Apart from them, a car with five occupants too had stopped at the particular tea stall. While most of the people got down for the tea, a few stayed inside the vehicles.

Meanwhile, a Sivagangai-bound cement-laden truck from Ariyalur, which was proceeding at a high speed, went out of the driver’s control, ploughed into the group of devotees having tea, hit their vans one after the other and came to a half after hitting the car. In the impact, five persons were killed on the spot while 19 others sustained serious injuries.

The deceased were identified as R Gokulakrishnan (28) of Tiruvellavayal in Tiruvallur district, Jaganathan (60) and S Shanthi (49) of Panayancherry, S Sathish (25) of Aminjikarai, and K Suresh (39) of Maduravoyal in Chennai.

Namanasamudram police retrieved the bodies and sent them to Pudukkottai GH, while injured were rushed to Tirumayam GH and from there to Pudukkottai Medical College.

Guv, CM condole; solatium announced

Chief Minister MK Stalin and Governor RN Ravi on Saturday expressed their condolences to the bereaved families of the deceased. Stalin also directed the officials to pay Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh each for seriously injured and Rs 50,000 each for those with minor injuries.