Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 12 Jun: Road accidents continue to be an issue of grave concern in Uttarakhand, with five separate incidents reported in the last twenty-four hours claiming three lives and leaving twenty-nine others injured. The most recent accident in Dehradun brought the dangers of speeding vehicles to the forefront when, last night, a Scorpio collided with three two-wheelers near the Mohkampur Railway Overbridge in the Nehru Colony police station area. Four persons, including the Scorpio driver, sustained injuries in the collision, which was so severe that it caused a traffic jam. Police reached the spot promptly, shifted all the injured to hospital for treatment, and arrested the Scorpio driver.
In another tragic incident in the Bhowali area of Nainital district, a vehicle carrying tourists from Lucknow lost control and plunged nearly one hundred feet into a deep gorge. One tourist died on the spot, while four others were seriously injured. Upon receiving information, police, SDRF, and NDRF teams launched a joint rescue operation and evacuated the injured to the nearest Primary Community Health Centre before referring them to a higher medical facility. The tourists, who were returning to Nainital after visiting Mukteshwar, were identified as Aditya Shukla (deceased), Mridul Gupta, Rohan Arora, Tushar Tiwari, and Sumit Gupta, all residents of Lucknow. The families of the deceased and injured have been informed, and the body has been sent for post-mortem after completion of necessary formalities.
On the Rishikesh-Badrinath National Highway in Chamoli district, two bike-borne pilgrims returning from Badrinath Dham lost their lives when large boulders fell on them, sweeping both riders and their bikes five hundred metres down into a deep gorge. Both pilgrims, residents of Haryana, died in the incident, and police had to make strenuous efforts to retrieve the bodies, which were then sent for post-mortem.
One another accident occurred late at night near Helang on the same highway, when a bus returning from Badrinath to Rishikesh suffered a brake failure near Animath. The bus, carrying twenty-nine passengers, became uncontrollable, leading to panic among the passengers. Fourteen persons were injured, with three sustaining serious injuries and being referred to the District Hospital, Gopeshwar, while the rest were admitted to Jyotirmath Hospital. The bus, registered in Madhya Pradesh, was returning from Badrinath Dham when the mishap occurred.
Yet another accident was reported in Tehri district on the Rishikesh-Gangotri Highway (NH-34), where a head-on collision between a Tempo Traveller and a Kia car near the Sarot village temple gate resulted in injuries to seven people. The accident was attributed to the car driver dozing off, causing the vehicle to collide with the oncoming Tempo Traveller. Eyewitnesses remarked that if the car had not struck the Tempo Traveller, it might have plunged into the gorge, potentially leading to a major tragedy. The Tempo Traveller’s front tyres burst during the collision, and both vehicles bore registration numbers HR55 AN 9647 and UP12 BN 3833 respectively. According to the Police, the Char Dham pilgrims in the Tempo Traveller, believed to be from Ghaziabad, were shifted to another vehicle and sent onwards to Badrinath-Kedarnath, while the car passengers, relatives from Muzaffarnagar and Noida, were on their way to Gangotri-Yamunotri. The CMS of Community Health Centre Chham, disclosed that three of the injured car passengers were referred to a higher centre after receiving primary treatment, while the other four were discharged after treatment.
