TIRUCHY: Four women devotees on a padayatra to Samayapuram temple died, and three sustained injuries when a car bound from Chennai to Tiruchy ran over them in Perambalur in the wee hours of Saturday.
It is said that a group of 10 devotees from Pennadam in Cuddalore, including S Malarkodi (35), S Vijayalakshmi (40), T Sasikala (47), P Jothi Lakshmi (57) and M Chithra (40) from Kengawalli in Salem were on a pilgrimage to Samayapuram Arulmigu Mariamman temple.
While they were walking along the road and nearing Siruvachur in Perambalur in Tiruchy-Chennai bypass at around 5 am on Saturday, a car that was coming from Chennai to Tiruchy ran into the group of devotees in which Malarkodi, Vijayalakshmi, Sasikala and Chithra died on the spot, while Jothi Lakshmi, S Jayalakshmi (43) and M Tamilarasi (42) sustained severe injuries.
On information, Perambalur police rushed to the spot, retrieved the bodies and sent them to the Perambalur Government Hospital. The injured were also taken to the hospital and provided treatment.
The police also registered a case and arrested S Gowtham (24), the car driver from Tirusulam in Chennai.
A devotee who was present at the spot told reporters that the group had been walking cautiously along the road in the early morning hours when the accident occurred.
“The car came out of nowhere and hit us. Everything happened so fast. It felt unreal, like a scene from a movie,” the devotee said.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident that took place on Friday late hours, S Navshad Ali (22) of V Kalathur in Perambalur district was killed while returning home on his two-wheeler from the Thirumandurai toll plaza.
Police said the accident occurred near Thirumandurai on the Chennai–Tiruchy National Highway, where he allegedly collided with a lorry carrying timber that was moving ahead of him while attempting to overtake the lorry.
Mangalamedu police rushed to the spot soon after receiving information, recovered Navshad Ali’s body, and sent it to the Perambalur Government Hospital for post-mortem examination.
A case has been registered, and an investigation is under way to ascertain the exact cause of the accident.