Chennai woman run over by truck after AIADMK banner falls on her

A 23-year-old woman was run over by a lorry after an illegally-erected banner of the AIADMK party fell on her, near Pallikaranai in Chennai on Thursday (September 12).

The deceased, identified as Subhasri Ravi, a resident of Chrompet, was on her way to a marriage on the Pallikaranai Road when the banner in the middle of the road fell on her, police said.

Subhasri Ravi, who lost control of the vehicle and fell on the road, was run over by a lorry. Police reached the spot and arrested the lorry driver, Manoj from Bihar. The 23-year-old victim, who had taken a test to pursue higher studies in Canada, was an MTech graduate working in an IT company in Perungudi.

The incident has caused a public furore as people took to social media and started questioning, “Who killed Subhasri?”

However, this wasn’t the first time someone died in an accident caused due to flex banners.

In November 2017, a 30-year-old software engineer was crushed under a lorry in Coimbatore after his bike rammed into a temporary structure set up to fix banners on the eve of centenary celebrations of former chief minister MG Ramachandran’s birth anniversary.

The victim, Ragupathy K, who was supposed to return to the US soon, fell from his bike and was run over by a sand-laden lorry. It too had triggered a public outcry and in a similar way netizens had questioned his death on social media, “Who killed Ragu.”

Meanwhile, it must be noted that the Madras High Court had banned all registered and recognised political parties from erecting digital banners or placards on either sides of roads, platforms and walkways across the state.