CHENNAI: Three schoolchildren were killed and five injured in a freak accident after a tipper lorry rammed into a tiffin centre opposite the Government School near Velliyur village in Tiruvallur district on Tuesday.Members of the public staged a road roko demanding immediate compensation and speed breakers at 13 locations, besides closure of sand quarries in Eraiyur, Arumbakkam and Meiyur.Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa expressed condolences to the families of the victims and ordered officials at the Rajiv Gandhi Government GH to provide the best treatment available to the six injured students. She also announced a solatium of `1 lakh each to the families of the three boys who died in the accident and a solatium of `15,000 the injured boys.Police said a few students of a government school on Tiruvallur-Redhills main road were at a tiffin centre opposite the school when the driver of a tipper lorry, going to Redhills, lost control of his vehicle and rammed it in to the tiffin centre.Three Class XII students, N Munnusamy (18) of Kumukampedu, K Mohan Das (18) of Kadirvedu and R Raj Kumar (18) of Kumukampedu Colony were killed on the spot. Three others, R Thambidurai (18) of Punnapakkam, S Selvakumar (18) of Pagalmedu and M Sabapathy (18) of Kumukampedu, sustained grievous injuries and were admitted to the Government General Hospital in Chennai.Two students, Nagaraj (18) of Thamaraipakkam Koot Road and Raj Bharath (13) of Velliyur, were admitted to the Tiruvallur GH. The driver abandoned the lorry and fled. It is alleged that the protestors set fire to the lorry, but the police, who arrived at the spot, doused the flames.Following assurance of action from Minister B V Ramana, IG Sylendra Babu, SP V Vanitha and Collector Ashish Chatterji, who visited the spot, the protestors dispersed. “We are on the look out for both the driver and the owner of the lorry,” said Vanitha. The SP said that students have demands including proper drinking water facility, canteen and better frequency of buses during school hours.
Comments
0 comment