PARADIP: A 60-year-old retired junior engineer of the Marine Department of Paradip Port Authority (PPA) and his wife died after their car fell into a water-filled drain near Biju Patnaik Market Complex Chowk on the Chandikhole-Paradip National Highway 53 under Paradip Lock police limits late Tuesday night.
The deceased were identified as Bibhuti Bhusan Das, a retired junior engineer of the PPA Marine Department who had retired from the post only last month, and his wife Pratima Das, 55.
Sources said the couple had gone to a relative’s house at Paradipgarh around 10.30 pm on Tuesday to attend a feast. They were returning to Paradip by car around 2 am when the accident occurred.
Das was driving the car while his wife was seated in the front. While attempting to enter the Chandikhole-Paradip National Highway from a connecting road, a cargo-laden truck approached. Das reportedly gave way to the truck, following which he lost control of the vehicle. The car veered off the road and fell into a drain near the ARSS company storage area, where construction work for expansion of the highway was underway.The drain was filled with rainwater, causing the car to overturn and become submerged.
The vehicle reportedly remained upside down, with its wheels above the water and its roof submerged. Trapped inside the vehicle, the couple could not escape. As the accident occurred late at night, there was no immediate help available. After nearly two to three hours, labourers engaged in construction work noticed the vehicle and informed local residents and police.
Paradip police and local residents rushed to the spot and rescued the couple in the early hours of Wednesday. They were taken to Atharbanki Community Health Centre, where doctors declared them dead.
Police said the preliminary medical report indicated suffocation as the cause of death. The tragedy has cast a pall of gloom in the locality.
Additional Superintendent of Police, Paradip Ajinkya Mane said the couple had died due to suffocation after the accident. Their bodies were seized and sent to Kujang Hospital for postmortem. “An unnatural death case has been registered and an investigation is underway to ascertain the exact cause of the accident,” he said.