Chennai: Three school students riding two bicycles on Tuesday were hit by a speeding SUV at Valaymaptu village near Vaniyambadi in Tirupattur district of Tamil Nadu, police said.
The three boys identified as S. Rafiq and two siblings, R. Vijay and R. Suriya, who were in their bicycles died on the spot. All the deceased studied in Class 8.
While the brothers, Suriya and Vijay were riding the same bicycle, Rafiq was in another bicycle.
The deceased children were residents of the Melavampatti village in Vaniyambadi.
Tiruvattur Superintendent of Police, S. Balakrishnan, told IANS, “The driver of the SUV which mowed down the boys, Santosh Kumar (29) is in our custody and he said that he had lost control of the vehicle when some cattle suddenly crossed the highway.”
The SUV then veered towards the opposite side and hit the children who were riding a bicycle to reach school.
There was heavy traffic congestion on the Chennai- Bengaluru highway at the accident spot and the Superintendent of Police took direct control of the situation and cleared the traffic congestion.
The bodies of the three boys are kept in Vaniyambadi Taluk hospital for post-mortem.
Tirupattur District Collector, Bhaskara Pandian reached the hospital and met the parents of the children who died in the accident.
–IANS