3 students killed after car falls into Sidhwan Canal
Some passers-by rescued the victims and rushed them to hospital, where doctors declared them brought dead
LUDHIANA : Three of four young student occupants of a car were killed when their vehicle, a Maruti Suzuki Swift, fell into the Sidhwan Canal near Raghunath Enclave on the South City Road on Sunday evening. Their car went out of control after it hit an Hyundai i-20 plying just in front, police have said.
The victims are Prabhjot Singh Lubana, 19; Pahul Bains, 18, both of Gurdaspur, and Tiksha Saini, 21 of Delhi. The fourth occupant of the car, Rahul, 20, of Gurdaspur, managed to swim out of the canal and has survived the crash.
Tiksha was doing internship at a hospital in the city and was putting up at a paying guest accommodation in South City. Rahul is pursuing graduation, while Prabhjot and Pahul were awaiting their Class-12 results. Prabhjot was at the wheel.
Some passers-by rescued the victims and rushed them to the nearest hospital, where doctors declared them brought dead. The lone survivor Rahul, 20, said, “A Hyundai i-20 took a sudden turn, leading to our car hitting it from the rear and plunging into the canal. The
three of us were friends of Tiksha and had come to meet her.”
He added, “We had left Gurdaspur about 11:30am and reached Ludhiana at 2:30pm. We picked up Tiksha and went to a shopping mall, where we had some snacks. At around 5:30pm, we were going towards the South City to drop Tiksha at her paying guest accommodation, when the accident happened. I managed to jump outside
and survived.”
Joint commissioner of police (JCP, city) Deepak Pareek said they reached the site as soon as they were informed and started the rescue operation. “We are tracing the Hyundai i-20 car, which caused the mishap and also procuring CCTV footage to establish the sequence of events. The parents of the victims have been informed,” he added.