Tamil Nadu   

Schoolgirl fatally hit by speeding van

— Photo: By Special Arrangement

Public anger: Residents block East Coast Road near Panaiyur on Wednesday after the death of a nine-year-old student.

TAMBARAM: A nine-year-old girl was killed on the spot and her elder sister injured when a van hit a group of girls who were crossing East Coast Road at Panaiyur village, near Sholinganallur, on Wednesday morning.

Sundari (11) and Swapna (9) were students of St. Thomas Mount Panchayat Union Primary School at Kudumaiyandi Thoppu and were staying in the same locality. Their father, Ganapathy was a fisherman. They were going to school when the accident occurred.

The speeding van, shuttling between Chennai and Mamallapuram, tried to overtake a Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus that was picking up commuters at Panaiyur. While Swapna died instantaneously, Sundari was injured.

About 100 residents and traders in the area blocked traffic on East Coast Road, from 9 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. Only after senior police officials came to the spot did they disperse.

The police arrested the van driver, Balamurugan, 24.

The protesters charged the police with failure to curb over-speeding and rash driving on East Coast Road. Though traffic policemen did not miss the opportunity to harass motorists under the pretext of checks, hardly did they pull up errant drivers. On June 4, a man and his son were killed when the cycle they were riding was hit by a speeding mini-bus at Uthandi. The man was taking his son to school.

A 69-year-old was killed having been hit by a Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus, on Grand Southern Trunk Road, at Tambaram Sanatorium. K. Balan, suffering from pain at the knee joint, was walking across the road to reach the National Institute of Siddha, when the MTC bus (Tambaram-Redhills) knocked him down. The bus was travelling at such a great speed that it dragged the body for 50 feet.

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