DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand witnessed a grim beginning to the New Year as two separate road accidents claimed the lives of eight individuals on January 1.
According to police sources, four people were killed in a devastating car crash in Bageshwar district. An Alto car veered off course and plunged into the Pinder River near Teekh, under the jurisdiction of the Kapkot police. Of the four people in the vehicle, three bodies were recovered on Wednesday, while the body of the missing woman was found after an intense search operation on Thursday.
The victims have been identified as Neelam Rawat, 30, from Timilabgad; Sundar Aithani, 32, son of the late Govind Singh, resident of Bamshera Aithan; Munna Shahi, 34, from Ranthal; and Poonam Pandey, 30, wife of Ramesh Pandey.
Arpan Yadhuvanshi, Commandant of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), informed this newspaper, "The SDRF and police teams worked tirelessly throughout the night to recover three bodies on Wednesday night, while one was found on Thursday afternoon."
Police Circle Officer Ankit Kandari added, "The bodies have been sent for post-mortem at the district hospital and will be handed over to the families afterward. An investigation into the incident is currently underway."
In another accident near Bahadarabad in Haridwar, a group of five young men from Haryana died when their car crashed into a truck. According to police sources, the five youths were from the Lisadi village in the Rewari district of Haryana were travelling to Haryana when the accident happened.
Naresh Rathore, the station house officer, stated, "The five youths were from the same village in Rewari. The families of the deceased have been notified."
The accident occurred late Wednesday night. Rathore explained, "During their journey, their car lost control and collided with a truck parked on the roadside. The impact was so severe that the car was completely mangled."
Three of the passengers—Kair Singh, 35; Aditya, 38; and Manish, 36—died at the scene. Two other individuals were rushed to a district hospital, where doctors pronounced Prakash, 40, dead upon arrival.