Chennai: A teenager without a driving licence was killed after the 12-wheel heavy-duty tipper truck he was driving veered off into the Buckingham Canal from the Basin Bridge during the small hours of Monday.
P. Prakash (18), resident of Gandhipuram, Vyasarpadi, who is the cleaner of the vehicle, was at the wheels when the mishap occurred. The role of the truck driver, Partiban (38), is being examined by the Tondiarpet Traffic investigation wing. “Partiban, (a neighbour of the deceased), claims that he pulled the tipper over to stop for a cup of tea ahead of Kalyanapuram from where Prakash drove it away. The lorry was heading from the Madhavaram lorry shed to take its load from near Chennai Central,” said a senior police official. “The boy's grandfather claimed that the boy was tagging along with Partiban and was poor in handling automobiles and was not even allowed to use bikes,” he added.
Fire and Rescue Services personnel from Washermenpet and Sembium fished out the boy's body after a 5-hour search. They were at their rescue mission even as Partiban belatedly turned up at the spot looking for the lorry.
The boy's body, first moved to the Government Stanley Hospital, was handed over to the family after an autopsy. Recalling the scenes at the accident spot, mechanic Saktithaasan, said, “Our co-worker heard a loud noise from the canal bund at 1.55 am. He ran out to find the tipper had crashed into the railing of the bridge and was dangling over the canal. The lorry then slowly nose-dived into water.”
“The boy may have been scared when the vehicle veered off the road and may have believed in his skills to stop the vehicle from falling over from the bridge. He should have climbed out of the cabin since he had time instead of clinging on to the wheels,” said Prabhu, who witnessed the accident.
The lorry belonged to Saleem of Ponneri, an AIADMK functionary, who was busy filing his nomination for the local body election. Two 12-tonne cranes were employed to lift the wrecked lorry from the canal from 7 am onwards.
The lifting capacity of the two cranes could not help the lorry clear the bridge and another huge crane with higher lift and higher boom clearance was deployed. The tipper was then fished out of the canal.
Wreckage removal chokes traffic
The removal of the lorry wreckage by the city police and civic authorities choked traffic on the lane over the Basin Bridge on Buckingham Canal.
Traffic was restricted to one lane of the bridge's arm, which connects Wall Tax Road with Basin Bridge, from which the tipper plummeted into the canal. Five hours after the accident, two cranes were deployed from the bridge and the bund and attempted to lift the vehicle from the canal in vain. Traffic was restored on that lane between 9 am and 11 am.
The two cranes were put on hold and another high capacity crane was pressed into service at around 11.30 pm.
The traffic was subsequently blocked from the Basin Bridge Power House Road junction, Wall Tax Road junction, and on the arm on which the accident took place.
The tipper, which was pulled out in the overturned position was placed on the bridge in the same position. It was subsequently moved to the junction of Basin Bridge and Wall Tax Road junction facilitating the cranes to roll the tipper over on its wheels so it could be towed away at around 4.30 pm and vehicular traffic resumed only after-wards.
