Truck driver suffers stroke, loses control, 2 students die in Malappuram
Malappuram: A tragic truck accident claimed the lives of two school students and left seven others injured at Manimooli near Vazhikkadavu in district on Tuesday. Six of the injured are students and one is an autorickshaw driver. One of students is critical in a hospital.
The deceased were identified as Fida Mol, 14, daughter of Abbas of Alappoyil, and Muhammed Shamil, 9, son of Faisal Babu of Randampaadam near Manimooli. They were students of ninth and third standards respectively of Christ King High School at Manimooli. The injured students also are of the same school.
The accident occurred when the driver of the truck suffered a stroke and lost control of the vehicle which hit a bus, a motorbike and an autori-ckshaw before ramming the students on the roadside at 9.30 am.
Fida was walking on her way to the school while Shamil was in the autorickshaw. The local people rushed the two students to a private hospital at Edakkara, but they were declared brought dead. The injured auto driver was also hospitalised while the bike rider escaped unhurt.
Truck driver Musthafa, 64, was found partially paralysed inside the driver’s cabin and he was also rushed to Nilambur district hospital. He was later referred to a private hospital in Perintha-lmanna. The 12-wheeler truck loaded with copra from Karnataka was on its way to a mill at Melattur near here. Vazhikkadavu is around 55 km from the district headquarters.
The injured students were admitted to Nilambur district hospital and private hospitals at Edakkara and Perintha-lmanna. The condition of one student at Perinth-almanna hospital is critical. The bodies of Fida and Shamil were kept at the school for some time to enable thousands of students, teachers and local residents to pay homage.
The school also declared a holiday on Tuesday. The funeral of the victims was held at Poovathipoyi mosque in the evening. Following the incident, the District Disaster Management Committee headed by the collector Amit Meena has banned the transportation of all the heavy vehicles between 8 to 10 am and 3.30 to 5.30 pm from entering through Vazhikkadavu checkpost in Nadukani-Nilambur highway. At the same time heavy transport vehicles have been exempted.
