VELLORE: Seven persons, three of them women, were killed and 23 others were grievously injured when the mini-lorry in which they were travelling overturned on Thursday morning.
According to Veppamkuppam police inspector Govindasamy, 70 persons had hired a mini-lorry at Pallakuppam village, Melpatti limits in Gudiyattam taluk, to attend the funeral of Munusamy of Varadhalampattu village, Anaikattu taluk, on Thursday morning.
The driver of the mini-lorry lost control of the vehicle when he gave way to a motorbike coming in the opposite direction. The lorry ran helter-skelter and finally overturned, leading to the death of five persons on the spot.
Two more persons died on way to the hospital while 25 other passengers were rushed to the Adukkamparai GH. The condition of some of those who are being treated is critical, said hospital sources. The police identified those who died in the accident as Chakravarthi, Kuppan, Samikannu, Anumuthu, Rajambal, Sampoornam and Rukmini, all belonging to Pallakuppam village.
On coming to know about the accident, collector, Dr R. Nandagopal, DIG Tamil Chandran, DSP Ganesan, Dr P. Vijayakumar, Veppam Kuppam inspector Govindasamy and Pallikonda inspector Martin Premraj visited the accident spot and also the government hospital, where they consoled the families of the victims.
The Pallikonda police arrested lorry driver Venkatesh. Omapadi VAO Yuvaraj filed a complaint with the Veppamkuppam police station.
