Cuddalore: At least five people were killed in as many vehicles piled up one after other on the Chennai-Trichy national highway near Veppur in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore during the small hours on Tuesday. Police said all five deceased were travelling in a car from Chennai. The
Cuddalore police said, "We have alerted the local police in Chennai. Preliminary probe suggests the pileup occurred due to a traffic congestion. The car, bound for Chennai, halted near Veppur in the early hours owing to the traffic congestion."
Another police official who is privy to the investigation, said the congestion was caused due to the construction of a flyover at Iyyanarpalayam when a speeding lorry crashed into the car from behind. "Due to the impact, the car surged forward and hit a car in front of it and crashed between lorries," the official said.
The car was completely crushed and all the five occupants died on the spot," a senior police official said. Police identified the man driving the ill-fated car as Vijayaraghavan of Nanganallur, Chennai. His mother, wife and two children, too, died on the spot. Police, who rushed to the place, retrieved the bodies and sent them to the nearby government hospital for autopsy. The lorry driver, who fled after the accident, was later caught and detained by the police.
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