Two patients, attendant die as ambulance rams bus in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul district

MADURAI: Two patients and an attendant died and seven others suffered injuries when a GVK-EMRI 108 ambulance rammed the back of a private bus near Vedasandur in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday afternoon.
The ambulance was ferrying two patients from Vedasandur Government Hospital to Dindigul Government Hospital on referral. When the ambulance was crossing a mill at Vittalnayakkanpatti, a private bus speeding in front of it suddenly halted on the road to drop and pick up passengers.The ambulance rammed the back of the bus, and its front portion was completely damaged.
A patient, identified as Palaniswami, and his attendant, Veerakumar, died on the spot.
Seven others, including ambulance pilot Shankar, 39, EMT technician Sathya, 30, another patient identified as Natraj, 48, attendants Banupriya, 23, and Lakshmi, 44, and two staff members of Vedasandur Government Hospital identified as Sumathi, 35, and Murugesan,50, were rushed to Dindigul Government Hospital with injuries.
Natraj and Sumathi, who suffered serious injuries, were shifted to hospitals in Madurai for further treatment.
Natraj, who was undergoing treatment in Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) in Madurai, had severe traumatic brain injury and was on ventilator support. GRH dean Dr A Rathinavel said Natraj died on Thursday evening without responding to treatment.
All other injured were in stable condition and undergoing treatment in hospitals in Dindigul and Madurai, police said.
Dindigul superintendent of police VR Srinivasan inspected the accident spot on Wednesday. CCTV footage showed that the ambulance was forced to ram the bus as there was a truck trying to overtake the ambulance at the time.