Schoolgirls hitchhiking on goods carrier injured in accident
TNN | Jun 27, 2013, 02.25AM IST
TRICHY: As many as 15 girl students in the age group of 12 to 13 years were injured, as the goods carrier in which they had hitchhiked collided with a speeding sand-laden truck near Musiri on Wednesday morning. Though both the goods carrier and the truck swerved and rolled into a 20 feet-deep gorge, the girls escaped with fractures or minor injuries. There were about 23 people in the goods carrier, 20 schoolgirls and the driver, his wife and a college-going student.

The girls, hailing from Kariyampalayam are students of Government Girls HSS at Musiri, some 40 km from Trichy. They had missed the bus around 11am and were waiting for any available transport. Since supplementary exams were going on for the class 10 students, these girls had to attend class only in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Chandramathi, 19, the college student was also waiting at the bus stop when the goods carrier, owned by her uncle passed by. All the 21 girls boarded the carrier. Chandramathi and one more student were seated in the front along with the driver and his wife.

Chandramathi told TOI from the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital that she could not remember anything as the accident occurred all of a sudden. When she regained her consciousness she was already at the Musiri government hospital along with other injured students. Chandramathi suffered a fracture on her right elbow and two other students, Lakshmi, 12 and Satya, 13 suffered injuries on their legs.

In all, 16 injured students were referred to the Trichy hospital. The dean Dr R Vallinayagam, accompanied by professor of neurology Dr M A Aleem and resident medical officer Dr Shiva Kumar visited the injured girls. Since there was no CT scan facility at Musiri hospital, 16 patients were referred to Trichy hospital at the instance of their parents.

Though the RTO office had specifically warned that the goods carriers must not transport humans, people still travel by them.