A plus-two girl student on her way to school on a bicycle was fatally knocked down by a water tanker in Ayapakkam near Avadi on Monday morning.
Following the death of Periyanayaki, 17, under the wheel of water tanker on MGR Puram Road, the local residents blocked the Ayapakkam main road and tried to set the vehicle on fire. She and her brother Subbiah, 15, a standard X student, children of Muthuveerappan, a supervisor working in a firm in Ambattur industrial estate, had started from their house in Kamadhenu Nagar in separate bicycles to their school in Athipalli.
When the two were on MGR Puram Road a water tanker hit Periyanayaki and ran over her in front of her brother. She was killed in the spot.
Immediately after the incident, Rajendran, driver, of water tanker, escaped from the scene. The police caught him two hours later. Hearing the tragedy over 500 local residents gathered at the spot and started blocking the road saying that many lorries, carrying water, indulge in rash driving in the particular stretch of road causing danger to the residents.
The agitated people broke the windshields of the lorry besides trying to set the vehicle on fire. “Some people set the driver seat on fire. But we doused it immediately,” the police said.
“Many tankers carries drinking water from Ayapakkam area to the city. We don’t know if they are legally tapping the ground water from the area or not. But the water tankers running in the area is a threat to us,” said one of the residents. Road roko by the residents caused traffic jam on the Ayapakkam main road for more than a hour. Only after the arrival of senior revenue and police officials the crowd dispersed.