Four die in multi-vehicle collision on Thoppur ghat road

DHARMAPURI: Four people died in a multi-vehicle collision involving a Taurus truck, a parcel truck, a car, a minivan and a two‐wheeler on Thoppur ghat road on the Salem-Bengaluru National Highway in Dharmapuri district on Tuesday.

The deceased have been identified as Taurus truck driver N Munusamy, 43, from Namakkal district, S Arunagiri, 47, and his sister Kalaiarasi, 42, of Mathemangalam in Dharmapuri district and V Dinesh, 30, from Salem district.

The truck driven by Munusamy was carrying chicken feed from Maharashtra to Namakkal. Traffic was disrupted near the double bridge due to high‐level flyover work, and Munusamy lost control of the truck. The truck collided with a parcel truck moving in front of it. The parcel truck, which was going from Vellore to Trichy, rammed a car, a minivan and a two-wheeler coming from the opposite direction.




Munusamy and two‐wheeler riders Arunagiri and his sister Kalaiyarasi died on the spot, said Dharmapuri district collector said R Sadheesh who visited the accident spot. Dinesh was seriously injured when the parcel truck rammed his car. He died while being rushed to Dharmapuri Government Medical College and Hospital. Three other people in the vehicles sustained injuries. Their condition was said to be stable.

The accident caused severe traffic congestion on the NH. The Thoppur police have launched an investigation into the accident.

As per the data available with the National Highway Authority of India, 92 collisions happened in 2018 on the Thoppur ghat road which claimed 32 lives. A total of 108 accidents happened in 2019 and 99 in 2020, resulting in 46 and 38 deaths respectively. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data records 961 accidents in the stretch over the last 11 years, with an additional number of minor incidents uncounted. "In the past 12 years, 255 people have died on the Thoppur ghat road," said an NHAI official, adding that steep gradients, tight turns and vehicle queues at the toll booth often led to tail‐end collisions.

Truck drivers attribute roughly 90% of crashes to air brake failures while descending. "Pressure loss in slowly applied brakes causes them to fail," a driver said.

Construction of a new three-lane elevated flyover in Thoppur is under way, with bridge piers now 35 metres high. Work on the 6.6km elevated road to prevent accidents is 50% complete. The govt has allocated Rs 905 crore for the project.

The NHAI official stated that recent safety measures included numerous speed breakers at the Thoppur crossing and continuous announcements advising drivers not to exceed 30 km per hour.