Doc chokes to death in car stuck in flooded underpass

Doc chokes to death in car stuck in flooded underpass

She Couldn’t Unfasten Her Seatbelt: Cops

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Trichy:20/09/2021

A 32-year-old government doctor choked to death after the car she was driving got submerged in stagnant rainwater in a flooded railway underpass at Thudaiyur in Pudukkottai district on Friday night. The deceased, C Sathiya, an assistant surgeon at the government hospital in Hosur, was travelling along with her mother-in-law Jayam Ammal, 67, who was rescued.

The Keeranur police said the underpass was flooded after a heavy downpour in the area since evening. “Unaware that the stagnant water was deep enough to submerge the car, Dr Sathiya drove on,” said sub-inspector of police B Abdul Razzak. He said the car got stuck when it neared the middle of the underpass where the water was deep. “As the car stopped, she tried to escape but could not unfasten the seatbelt. She got suffocated and died,” the officer told TOI. A truck coming in the opposite direction was also grounded in the flooded underpass. Razak said the driver of the truck who saw the doctor struggling to get out sought help from local people who managed to rescue Jayam Ammal.

While the SI said Jayam was in the front seat, deputy superintendent of police Sivasubramanian and revenue divisional officer (RDO) of Iluppur M S Balathandayudhapani said the woman was in the back seat.

Local people managed to pull out Sathiya from the car and rush her to hospital but their efforts went in vain. Government medical college hospital dean Dr M Poovathi said Sathiya was brought dead. DSP Sivasubramanian said the woman died due to suffocation inside the car. She is survived by her husband Sivakumar, 40, a native of Thudaiyur, and two children.

FLOOD OF WOES: The railway underpass at Thudaiyur in Pudukkottai was flooded after a heavy downpour on Friday

Irate people protest lack of safety measures

Though postmortem was performed on the body, it has been kept at the mortuary for a close relative to return from abroad.

Meanwhile, irate local residents blocked the road in the night protesting against the lack of safety measure from the railways to keep the underpass, which comes under Madurai railway division, risk-free. The police managed to convince the people to abandon the protest.

On Saturday, a peace committee meeting headed by RDO Balathandayudhapani was convened.

“Railways should have undertaken safety measures to drain out the water whenever it rained but they failed to do so. As demanded by the people, the unmanned railway gate has been reopened and the underpass closed,” the RDO said.