Chennai, July 9 -- Three school students died and three others were injured after a passenger train hit a school van while it was going through a a railway level crossing on Tuesday morning in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore district, police said. A male student, the driver and a by-stander were injured in the accident, according to railway officials. The victims have been identified as a class five boy, T Chezhiyan, his sister, a Class 11 student, T Charumathy and a class 6 boy, V Nimalesh. Chezhiyan died at the Puducherry JIPMER hospital and his sister and Nimalesh died on the spot. Annadurai, a local, who rushed to help, was electrocuted after coming into contact with a live wire from an electric pole that was damaged in the accident. The injured are being treated at a government hospital in Cuddalore. The accident took place at around 7.45 am in Alapakkam village in Cuddalore district at Gate No. 170 of a Railway Level Crossing between Cuddalore and Alappakkam railway stations when it was hit and toppled by a Villupuram-Mayiladuthurai passenger train. "I saw the van crossing and being hit by the train and the impact dragged the van a few meters," Balaji, a by-stander who helped with rescue told local media. There have been two versions of what happened. According to the railway records, the gate keeper had closed the gate at 7.06am, Trichy divisional manager of the railways, Anbalagan told reporters at the accident spot. "It's the gatekeeper's fault and the public is at fault too since he says they forced him to open the gate when there is too much traffic. Especially those riding two wheelers forced him to open the gate," the official said. "He shouldn't have opened the gate. He had followed the procedure until then. But, the public also should cooperate." However, the driver, C Shankar said, "The gate was open," There was no sound of a train honking, so I crossed." Injured student identified as Vivesh confirmed what the driver said. "It's a lie," the student said when asked if the van driver asked the gatekeeper to open the gate. "I don't know if he (gatekeeper) was sleeping or what he was doing but he didn't come even after the train hit us."...