MADURAI: Nine women were among 11 passengers killed while 54 others were injured after two govt buses collided head on near Vivekananda Polytechnic College at Tirupattur in Sivaganga district on Sunday evening.A preliminary investigation suggested that one of the bus drivers swerved to avoid hitting a woman trying to dart across the state highway and rammed the vehicle coming from the opposite side. One bus was travelling from Kangeyam to Karaikudi, while the other was operating on the Karaikudi-Dindigul route. The collision occurred around 5pm, halting traffic for about 30 minutes.

Eight people, including the driver, died on the spot, while three grievously injured passengers died at Thirupattur Govt Hospital.CM announces Rs 3L each to kin of victims Police and fire and rescue services personnel rescued the injured, assisted by residents of the nearby areas. A fleet of 20 ambulances ferried the injured passengers to hospitals in Karaikudi, Thirupattur, Sivaganga, Pudukottai and Madurai. Around 28 people went to private hospitals on their own.CM M K Stalin condoled the deaths and announced a compensation of ₹3 lakh each to the families of the victims, ₹1 lakh to each of those with serious injuries, and ₹50,000 each to those with minor injuries.A case was registered at Nachiyapuram police station. The administration opened two toll-free numbers – 1077 and 04575-246233 – in Sivaganga district to provide information about the accident. Collector K Porkodi told TOI that three of the victims couldn’t be immediately identified.The others are driver P Sendrayan, S Muthumari, R Kalpana, V Mallika, M Chellam, D Gunalakshmi, K Lavanya and A Deivanai.