Chennai: A seven-year-old girl was crushed to death after a parked car ran over her after the car was hit by another car driven by a newlywed woman learning to drive in Choolaimedu on Tuesday night.
The deceased child was identified as D. Pavithra, a class 2 student at a private school in Choolaimedu. Her father, Duraivelan is a water can supplier and the family lived on Vanniyar Second Street in Choolaimedu.
On Tuesday, around 10 30 pm, Pavithra was playing outside her home when the incident happened. Preethi (25), a newlywed woman was learning to drive a car on the same stretch. Her husband, Dany Williams (30) was teaching her to drive. While learning the car, Preethi stepped on the accelerator by mistake and lost control of the vehicle, thus, ramming the car into another parked vehicle on the street.
“Pavirthra was standing behind the parked vehicle and when Preethi’s car hit the vehicle, the car moved and Pavithra came under its wheels,” a police officer said. Hearing the child’s screams, family members and neighbours rushed onto the street. The child was secured and moved to a private hospital nearby where doctors declared her brought dead.
Police secured the child’s body and moved it to Kilpauk Medical College Hospital for an autopsy. The deceased child is the youngest child of Duraivelan—Jayanthi. The couple has an elder son, Yuvanesh (10). Police investigations revealed that Jayanthi and her son were inside the house while Duraivelan was away at work.
Residents cried foul that the stretch being already narrow, it was not advisable to learn car driving there. Police said that the woman got married only a month ago. Anna Nagar Traffic investigation wing booked Preethi under sections 279 (rash driving) and 304 (a) (causing death by negligence) of IPC and arrested her.
