Two students killed, 10 hurt as truck hits packed shared-auto

Bringing to fore flouting of norms by shared autos, two class IX students were killed and ten of their school mates injured when a truck hit their jam-packed vehicle near here today, police said.
The mishap occurred when 12 girl students of St Joseph's Higher Secondary School of Pannur were returning home and a truck that was coming from the opposite direction partially collided with the auto and sped past without stopping.
"Two students died in the mishap," Kancheepuram Police Superintendent C Vijayakumar said.
Shalini and Sindu were declared dead on arrival at a government hospital near here.
Seven students have been referred to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai, about 60 km from here, and others are being treated at a government hospital in nearby Sriperumbudur.

Further investigations are on, police said, adding the shared auto driver fled from the spot after the mishap.
Shared autos carry more passengers than they are allowed
and are especially used to ferry school children.