17 KILLED IN HIMACHAL, J&K ACCIDENTS
Rescue workers say road from where vehicle rolled down was damaged and had no parapet to prevent it from skidding
Seventeen persons were killed in separate accidents in Himachal and J&K on Saturday. Thirteen people, including three couples, died after a vehicle fell into a gorge in Shimla district on Saturday. In another accident, four people were killed when a vehicle skidded off the road and rolled down a gorge in J&K’s Doda district.
SHIMLA Thirteen people, including three couples, were killed after a vehicle they were travelling in veered off a road and fell into a deep gorge in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla district on Saturday, a police official said.
The accident took place at Sanail, three kilometres from Kuddu on Tiyuni Road.
The ill-fated Trax vehicle (bearing registration number HP 02 0695) was on its way to Tiyuni in Uttarakhand from Swara.
Shimla superintendent of police Omapati Jamwal said the thirteen occupants were killed in the accident.
While ten of them died on the spot, three succumbed to injuries at Rohru hospital, he added.
The deceased included eight members of three families. Three couples were among the deceased. The deceased have been identified as Matvar Singh, 48, his wife Basanti Devi, 44, their son Munish, 24, Prem Singh, 38, his wife Poonam, 30, their daughter Ridhima, 6, Attar Singh, 44, his wife Munna Devi, 40, Bittu, 42, Bandi Devi,48, Ner Singh, 35, Manoj, 35, and Anil, 28.
A police team led by Jubbal station house officer and Swara police post in-charge reached the site shortly after getting infor- mation about the accident.
The team rescued three injured and sent them to Rohru hospital but they died, Jamwal added.
Witnesses said the administration had a tough time extricating the victims from the badly-mangled vehicle.
Rescue workers said the road where the accident occurred was badly damaged and there was no parapet to prevent the vehicle from rolling down.
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and governor Acharya Devvrat expressed grief over the accident.