Four killed after truck rams into vehicles in Dharmapuri, police search for missing driver

The truck driver lost control of the vehicle, rear-ending as many as 12 cars, two mini trucks and two motorcycles before coming to a halt.
The accident led to severe traffic jam which disrupted movement for more than three hours. (Photo | Special Arrangement)
The accident led to severe traffic jam which disrupted movement for more than three hours. (Photo | Special Arrangement)

DHARMAPURI: In a major road accident at Thoppur ghat road, bordering Dharmapuri and Salem, four persons were killed after a speeding truck carrying heavy payload rammed into as many 14 vehicles.

At around 4.00 pm, police and NHAI staff from Palayam were involved in the recovery of a truck, which broke down in the middle of the ghat road in Thoppur. During their recovery operation, police had stopped nearly a dozen vehicles to prevent traffic jams and were regulating the flow of traffic.

It was around this time that another truck carrying heavy payload of cement from Andhra Pradesh approached the Thoppur ghat area via Dharmapuri in high speed. The truck driver lost control of the vehicle, rear-ending as many as 12 cars, two mini trucks and two motorcycles before coming to a halt.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, manager of the Thoppur Toll Plaza, Naresh, who was at Thoppur when the accident occurred said, "the accident was caused due to the negligence of the truck driver. The ghat road from Dharmapuri is at a steep descent and the toll plaza has set up multiple audio-visual warning systems to alert drivers. However, this warning was ignored by the driver."

"Further it is common for drivers to put their vehicle in neutral in order to save fuel. This causes trucks to drive in an uncontrolled free flow and finally when they want to stop the vehicle, the overheating of break leads to a system failure where drivers lose complete control of their vehicle," he added.

The majority of accidents in Thoppur are caused due to such negligence from the driver's end, Naresh added.

Dharmapuri district collector SP Karthikaa visited the accident site and oversaw the relief works along with Superintendent of Police C Praveshkumar.

Speaking to the media the Collector said, "four people died in the road accident in Thoppur caused by a speeding cement truck carrying heavy payload. The driver of the truck escaped after the truck halted and search operations by the police is underway."

Collector Karthikaa also informed that three people have received severe injuries and ten others had minor injuries. The injured are being treated in the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College and Dharmapuri Medical College Hospital respectively.

Superintendent of Police C Praveshkumar informed that four people, A Madhankumar (32), Kannan (26) from Perumpalai, Nithyanandha from Coimbatore and Karthik a driver from Omalur died in this incident. 

"Currently, we are involved in locating the kin of the deceased and the bodies have been sent to postmortem in the DMCH,"he added.

The accident led to severe traffic jam which disrupted movement for more than three hours.

Manager of the Thoppur Toll Plaza Naresh, who is involved in clearing traffic efforts, said, "Almost 8 km backlog of traffic was reported. We have cleared a single lane to allow traffic flow and by 6 pm roads were temporarily opened after earth movers cleared the roads."

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com