Tamil Nadu: Cop on duty among 6 dead in Tirupur mishap

COIMBATORE: Six persons, including a police constable, were killed after a speeding car rammed into a stationery truck near Vellakovil in Tirupur district in the early hours of Wednesday.

The police identified the deceased as constable Ravichandran (35), attached to the Vellakovil police station, truck driver Senthil (50) from Cuddalore, the car driver Ram (22), and other occupants of the car — Balaji (28), a temple priest, and his parents Narasimman (65) and Santhalakshmi (60) from Mayiladuthurai.

The truck, which was travelling from Cuddalore to Vellakovil, laden with casuarina logs, had brushed against a barricade placed on the road near the police check post at Kurukkathi near Vellakovil.

According to the police, Senthil had stopped the truck by the road and was trying to reposition the barricade, with help from constable Ravichandran, who was on duty at the check post, when the speeding car, which was travelling from Mayiladuthurai to Coimbatore, run over the two men and rammed into the parked car. The two men and the occupants of the car died on the spot.

Vellakovil police station officers shifted the bodies to the Tirupur Government Medical College Hospital for post-mortem, while traffic on the busy Coimbatore-Tiruchy National Highway remained disrupted for nearly an hour.

The police have registered a case.

Ravichandran is survived by wife and two children. Senior police officials paid floral tributes to the cop’s body and were given a ceremonial gun salute.

Tirupur Collector Manish S Narnaware, Coimbatore Range Deputy Inspector General P Saminathan, Tirupur Superintendent of Police (in-charge) K Karthikeyan and other senior officials visited the accident site and conducted inquiries.