School van goes amok in TN, kills two

MADURAI: A private school van with students onboard went amok killing two persons, injuring five others and damaging three autorickshaws at Kovilpatti in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu on Monday morning. Students travelling in the van escaped without injuries.
The van was heading to a school located in Kadalaikara Street after picking up students from Thonukal.The accident happened after the van driver, C Mariadas, 66, lost control of the vehicle.
The van crushed three autorickshaws on the left side of the road, dragged the vehicles for a few meters and stopped after knocking down a few pedestrians.
Autorickshaw driver Thangaraj, 42, of Therku Thittankulam died on the spot. P Govindaraj, 46, succumbed to injuries without responding to treatment in the hospital. The injured have been identified as A Kannan, 49, M Selvakumar, 34, V Marimuthu, 46, Marichami and Subramanian.
The Kovilpatti West Police rushed to the spot, rescued the injued with the help of the public and rushed them to Kovilpatti Government Hospital. The body of Thangaraj was sent to the same hospital for postmortem.
The van driver was picked up for questioning. The police said a motor vehicle inspector would inspect the van to check if the van had any fault or if the accident caused was by an error on the part of driver.