CHENNAI: A 25-year-old man died after he rode into a 15-foot-deep pit dug up for canal work along the Maduravoyal bypass service road near Nolambur on Wednesday night. He was reportedly noticed only an hour after the accident and was declared brought dead by the hospital.
The deceased R Hari Prasanth (24), a resident of ICF Colony in Athipattu, was employed with a private tiles factory in Pattaravakkam, the police said.
Initial probe revealed that the accident happened around 10.30 pm when Prasanth allegedly entered a road that was closed for an ongoing canal construction and rode straight into the pit. The police are awaiting the postmortem report to ascertain whether he was under the influence of alcohol.
The incident is reminiscent of the multiple lives claimed by open drains and poorly barricaded construction sites across Delhi early this year, creating a furore over civic failure.
Local residents who noticed the accident about an hour later alerted the authorities after which he was secured and moved to a hospital. His body was subsequently sent to Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital for a postmortem examination.
The Anna Nagar traffic investigation wing police registered a case and are investigating.
Sources said that a stretch of about two-and-a-half kilometres of the Maduravoyal Bypass Service Road has been barricaded and closed to traffic for the past month. The spot where the accident happened was inside the barricaded stretch, and road closure and danger signages were also put up.
According to the police, the accident happened after a group of youngsters, including Hari Prasanth, had trespassed the barricaded road and consumed alcohol there. An official with the Greater Chennai Corporation said, "The 5.1 km cut-and-cover canal work, from Cookson Road junction in Ambattur Industrial Estate to Cooum River, is being carried out by the Water Resources Department to divert surplus water from Ambattur Lake. The service road was thoroughly barricaded, with a no-entry restriction in place. The deceased may have removed the barricade."