Chennai
In the first incident, a 19-year-old college student died and two of his friends were critically injured and have been admitted to the Chromepet Government General Hospital after their bike rammed a stationary government bus from behind in Tambaram in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The deceased Thangavelu was a final-year BCom student of a private college and the incident occurred when Thangavelu, along with his friends, was returning home in a two-wheeler after celebrating New Year on Marina Beach. Around 3 am, when the trio was crossing the Tambaram bus stand, Thangavelu lost balance and rammed into a bus. All three suffered injuries in the collision and were rushed to Chromepet Government Hospital where Thanavelu died without responding to treatment. The Chromepet Traffic Investigation police have registered a case and further inquiry is on.
In another incident, a 40-year-old lawyer on a two-wheeler was run over by a truck near the Central Prison in Puzhal on Tuesday night. The deceased was identified as Ramalingam, who was returning home on his two-wheeler. Similarly, 31-year-old Krishnakumar, a water can supplier from Red Hills, was fatally knocked down by an unidentified vehicle near Kathirvedu traffic signal around 2 am. Madhavaram traffic investigation have registered separate cases and investigation is on.
In another accident in their jurisdiction at Thalankuppam, around 1.40 am on Wednesday, two bikes collided head-on near the beach. While one of the riders, 48-year-old Sundar of Kuppam at Ennore, died on the spot, the other rider Akash, has been admitted to Government Stanley Hospital. He is critical.
Minor drop in road accident cases in city this New Year
Road accident cases in the city, according to 108-ambulance services, have reduced marginally this New Year while state-wide the numbers have gone up.
The total emergency calls on New Year eve was 1,446 in which 65 road accident cases were assisted from midnight till Wednesday 11 am. In 2019 from 1,480 emergency cases were assisted of which 83 were road accident cases.
“The total road accidents case across Tamil Nadu was 490. In 2019, the total accident cases are 445. Usually, in Chennai the accident rates will be more compared to other districts, but this time it has reduced,” said Balaji Premnath, Marketing Head, GVK EMRI.
According to data from Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Kilpauk Government Hospital, emergency cases in road accidents have reduced to 48. Last year, the two hospitals saw more than 150 cases on New Year’s Eve.
“There were 21 accidents cases from Tuesday night till Wednesday and all the injured were boys below the age of 17. They have minor injuries. Last year, we treated for more than 100 cases from New Year’s Eve and many had suffered major injuries. This year, however, the difference is huge,” said Dr K Narayanaswamy, Medical Superintendent, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
There were 65 ambulances parked at various accident spots in the city and suburbs, which also included 15 two-wheeler ambulances in the city, which helped to take the victims amidst the crowds at a much quicker time than ambulances.
“From Tuesday night the number of emergency cases we received were 27 this year whereas in 2019, we treated for more than 50 accident cases, we are happy that the road accidents have reduced this year,” said Dr P Vasanthamani, Dean, Government Kilpauk Medical College (KMC).
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