Three persons were killed in a head-on collision involving a container truck and a pipe-laden lorry on the Madurai-Thoothukudi highway at Palayampatti junction in Aruppukottai in the early hours of Thursday (July 10, 2025). The deceased were identified as S. Muthuraj, 25, of Watrap, and P. Jayamurugan, 50, of Thoothukudi. The identity of the third person, who was driving the pipe-laden lorry at the time of the accident, was yet to be identified, the police said. The police said that Muthuraj, who was the driver of the lorry, had permitted the unidentified third person to drive the vehicle. When the vehicle was approaching Palayampatti junction, the driver lost control of the wheel. The vehicle abruptly swerved towards the right and after hitting the median, it jumped over it. In the process, it landed on the carriageway of the opposite lane, on which the container truck was travelling. In a fraction of a second, the two trucks collided, and the driver’s cabins of both vehicles were torn apart, killing all three persons inside the cabins on the spot. Both vehicles were heavily-loaded, and got entangled with each other. Fire and Rescue Services personnel from Aruppukottai, led by Station Officer J. Varadaraj, struggled to pull out the bodies from the mangled remains of the trucks. The bodies were taken to the government hospital in Aruppukottai. A crane from Madurai was brought in and the two vehicles were separated and pushed to the roadside to clear traffic movement on the highway. The Aruppukottai Town police have registered a case, and further investigations are under way.