Five people, including four college students from Salem, were killed in a collision between a car and a truck near Tiruppur on Thursday.
According to the police, eight members, seven of whom were students from a private medical college in Salem, were travelling on a national highway in the four-wheeler towards Udhagamandalam. They started from Salem in the early hours of Thursday after their college was shut down due to the COVID-19 scare, police said.
At around 5.45 a.m., the car lost control and rammed the back of the moving truck near Ranga Nagar in Avinashi. "The truck driver was not at fault here," a senior officer from Tiruppur district police said.
Elavarasan, Vengatasalam, Rajesh and Vasanth, all aged 21 years, along with the driver Manikandan were killed on the spot. Three others - Santhosh, Jayasurya and Karthi, escaped with injuries from the accident. The first two were admitted in a private hospital at Thirumuruganpoondi in Tiruppur city while the third student was referred to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), according to the police.
The truck driver absconded following the accident. Avinashi police registered a case and efforts to nab the truck driver are under way.
This accident comes within a month after the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus accident that claimed 19 lives on February 20 in the outskirts of Tiruppur city. Police said that the Thursday accident occurred around three kilometres away from the spot of the previous bus accident.
