The woman’s sister, who in the car with her when the tree fell, is under treatment at a nearby hospital while the driver of the car is absconding.
A 57-year-old woman lost her life in Chennai after a huge tree came crashing down on the car she was travelling in. The deceased, identified as Vani Kabilan, was a branch manager of an Indian Overseas Bank branch. The incident occured on the evening of Friday June 24, while Vani and her sister were travelling in Chennai’s KK Nagar. While Vani was declared dead on the spot, her sister Ezhilarasi was taken to a hospital where she is undergoing treatment. Vani was the mother of journalist Kannalmozhi Kabilan.
The two sisters were sitting in the backseat of their car, driven by a man named Karthik, towards PT Rajan Road from Lakshmana Swamy Road. Even as the car was moving, a huge tree fell onto their car, leaving the sisters trapped inside. As per The Hindu, the driver Karthik was able to escape as he could open the door on his side. He is now absconding. Reports state that passers-by and local residents came together to dig up the tree and free Vani and Ezhilarasi. However, they were unable to rescue Vani.
Fire and police personnel then rushed to the spot and removed the fallen tree and investigated the incident. While Ezhilarasi was sent to the ESI hospital in KK Nagar, Vani’s mortal remains were sent for postmortem to a government hospital. A case of accidental death has been registered and investigation is still underway, police said.
As per the Times of India, the spot where the accident occured is close to an under-construction stormwater drain under the Singara Chennai 2.0 project. The Greater Chennai Corporation has ordered a probe into the incident as well, and has maintained that no digging work was taken up there since June 22. “No stormwater drain work was carried out in the last two days at the accident site. Digging work was stopped on June 22. There’s at least a 10-ft gap between the work site and the place where the tree stood,” the corporation said in a release.
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Source: The News Minute