Three of a family heading for a funeral killed in bike-bus crash in Villupuram

VILLUPURAM: Three of a family, who were on the way to attend the funeral of a kin, were killed after the bike they were travelling on collided with a TNSTC bus near Gingee on Sunday.

According to the police, M Duraikannu (46) a mason from Rajampuliyur village, was residing in Maduravoyal with his wife D Pachaiammal (42), son D Gunasekar (21), and daughter D Gopika (18).

A month ago, his elder brother M Nandagopal (55) met with an accident and succumbed to his injuries on Saturday night. Funeral arrangements were made in Rajampuliyur. Duraikannu and his family started from Chennai on two bikes to attend the funeral. Duraikannu, his wife, and daughter travelled on one bike, while his son rode the other two-wheeler.

In the early hours of Sunday, a TNSTC bus travelling from Gingee to Chennai collided with the bike driven by Duraikannu on the Gingee-Tindivanam Road near Thondiyaru River Bridge at Vallam. All three were thrown off the bike and died on the spot.

Gunasekar, who was riding behind them, witnessed the accident and informed their relatives. Local residents alerted the police.

Police sent the bodies to the Government Hospital in Gingee for postmortem. A case has been registered, and further investigations are underway, said police sources. Police said Pachaiammal was a homemaker, Gopika was a first-year undergraduate student in computer science at a college in Chennai, and Gunasekar had been working with his father as a mason after discontinuing his studies in Class 10.

“Gunasekar is yet to recover from the shock and has been crying since the incident,” said a local source.