Chennai: Two students—one studying in a college, and the other in a school—were killed in two separate road accidents near Tambaram on Friday evening, triggering public protests over the roadside encroachments, narrow roads and poor road discipline in the area.In the first incident, Kaushika, 21, a student of a private college near Kattankulathur, was riding her two-wheeler home to Padappai after classes. While travelling on the Vandalur-Wallajabad Road near Mannivakkam, a tipper truck approaching from behind blared its horn. Startled, Kaushika lost control of her vehicle and collided with a moped that was coming from the opposite direction on the wrong side of the road.Kaushika suffered severe head injuries, while the elderly moped rider was also injured. Both were taken to a private hospital, where doctors declared Kaushika dead. The injured woman is undergoing treatment.In the second incident, Kavya, 11, a Class VI student of a govt school in Mannivakkam, was returning home on a two-wheeler with her grandfather, Dhansingh, along the Tambaram-Mudichur Road. A govt bus travelling behind them collided with the two-wheeler, throwing both riders onto the road.Motorists and local residents rushed them to a nearby private hospital. Doctors declared Kavya dead on arrival, while Dhansingh was later shifted to Tambaram District Govt Hospital for treatment.The Guduvanchery traffic investigation wing police registered separate cases in both incidents. The bodies of the deceased students were sent for postmortem.Following the accidents, family members, relatives and local residents gathered at the hospital and protested against the recurring road accidents on the stretch. The protesters cited roadside encroachments by shops and food stalls, inadequate road width and frequent wrong-side driving as major factors contributing to these accidents, and they demanded that police take legal action.Police personnel pacified the agitators and assured them that action would be taken to address traffic violations and encroachments.
