WANAPARTHY: In a tragic incident which could have been averted, three persons, including a mother and her daughter, died after being washed away along with the bike they were riding on while crossing a low-level bridge submerged in a raging local stream in Wanaparthy district on Saturday evening.
Santoshamma, 35, and her daughter Parimala, 18, residents of Koukuntla village of Devarkadra Mandal, had gone to the former’s sister’s house at Kothakota to celebrate the Dasara festival. They planned to return home by train, but Sai Kumar, 25, the son of Santoshamma’s sister offered to drop them home on his bike.
Following many other bikers, Sai Kumar decided to cross the bridge in spite of the danger it posed due to the raging stream flowing over the bridge. As the bike reached halfway through the bridge, Sai Kumar lost control of the bike and the three were washed away in the flow.
Though locals tried to rescue them, it all went in vain. A team of police led by Madanapur SI Manjunath Reddy, which reached the spot immediately, conducted rescue operations but did not yield any results.
Due to darkness, the rescue efforts were called-off till Sunday morning. This was the second such incident in just a span of one month, as a private college lecturer was washed away in a similar way on September 7, while he was riding his bike from Kothakota to Atmakur.
The road is crucial for commuting on the Atmakur-Kothakota-Wanaparthy route, and the low-level bridge has been getting submerged for the past couple of years due to Ookachettu Vagu. The bridge has also been largely damaged due to the flow. Due to the siphons of the Sarala Sagar reservoir opening and other rainwater joining the stream, the flow has increased in the last few days.
There was a proposal to construct a high-level bridge on the stream, but the works were discontinued just after getting started. If that needs to be done, both the railways and the Roads and Buildings department would have to work on the proposal, which has not yet materialised.
“Construction of a high-level bridge on the stream is the urgent need of the hour to prevent such accidents, ” said Sudarshan Reddy, a resident of Gopanpet, which is located close to the accident spot.