CHENNAI: A 72-year-old man, a retired Southern Railway employee, died after his two-wheeler fell into a pit dug for highway expansion near Ayathur in Tiruvallur district on Sunday night.
The family members were searching for him throughout the night until a passerby noticed the elderly man in the pit and alerted the police. The police have registered a case of unnatural death and have initiated a probe.
Meanwhile, relatives of the victim alleged negligence on the part of authorities in not placing enough warning signs around the pit to aid motorists.
The victim was identified as Krishnan. According to the police, Krishnan attended a temple festival and was returning home when the accident happened. Police sources said that as part of the four-lane work from Avadi towards Tirupati, roadworks are under way and a 12-foot deep pit was dug near Bojan Kandigai into which Krishnan fell and died.
On information from passerby on Monday morning, the police recovered the elderly man's body and sent it to Government Tiruvallur Medical College Hospital for postmortem examination.
Officials said that the road works on the stretch are contracted to a private company and a probe is under way to find if there was negligence on their part after which action would be taken.