Protest erupts after boy run over by private bus
A six-year-old boy, travelling on a two-wheeler with his father, was crushed to death when he came under the wheels of a college bus near the Thokkavadi bus stop at Tiruchengode, in Namakkal, on Wednesday.
The boy’s father suffered serious injuries, and the accident sparked o a protest with people blocking the Tiruchengode – Erode road for two hours, disrupting trac.
According to the police, Satheeshkumar, 29, of Ammayappa Nagar in Kootapalli, an autorickshaw driver in a private company, was on his twowheeler with
Praveesh.
When he neared the bus his son, stop, a bus belonging to K.S.R. College of Technology that was on its way to Tiruchengode,
knocked the two-wheeler down. Both father and son fell on the road. The boy was caught under the wheels of the bus and died on the spot, while his father suered injuries.
Following the accident, a large number of people gathered on the road and staged a protest.
They said that from 8 a.m. to 9.30 a.m., on working days, hundreds of buses of educational institutions ply at a high speeds leading to frequent accidents on the four-lane road. They claimed that their repeated requests for placing of barricades and installing of speed-breakers on this stretch had not been met, leading to the loss of lives.
They refused to allow vehicles to move and wanted the college bus driver to be handed over to them. When the driver of a private bus from Rasipuram to Erode attempted to cross the site of the accident, the angry crowd hurled stones at the bus and damaged its windscreen.
Talks held
Tiruchengode Deputy Superintendent of Police Imayavaramban and police personnel went to the site of the accident and held talks with the protestors.
After the police agreed to install speed-breakers, the protest was withdrawn and trac resumed.
The boy’s body was taken to Tiruchengode Government Hospital for postmortem.