
GULLAPUR (UTTARA KANNADA) : “Death came to us when we were asleep.” This is how the survivors recalled the horrific accident at Gullapur near Yellapur in which 11 persons lost their lives after the lorry in which they were travelling toppled in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The victims, all vegetable vendors, started their journey from Savanur in Haveri and were heading towards Kumta in Uttara Kannada to sell their produce. They did this every Wednesday, but fate willed otherwise on the ill-fated day. “I was asleep at the time of the accident. A severe jolt woke me up and soon I realised that I was in the driver’s cabin. I broke open the glass and managed to come out,” recalled Khadri Javali, one of the 19 persons injured in the accident. Javali said that there was no mobile connectivity at the accident site. “We alerted other motorists. The police reached the spot at 5 am. They called for a crane and rescued us,” he added.
Riyaz Ahmed, 32, another person who was rescued, said that he too managed to get out of the lorry as he was sitting in the driver’s cabin. “The accident happened at around 4 am. There was no help till 5 am. Had the police come a little earlier, more lives could have been saved,” he claimed.
However, rescue personnel said that they reached the spot as soon as they received information. “It was 4 am when we got a call from the 108 Ambulance service seeking assistance.
A few survivors were in the cabin... Before the accident, they were all seated on containers containing vegetables,” said Balakrishna Naik Arbail, a social worker from Yellapur. He said four ambulances were pressed into service.
Imran Mohammed Isaac Sanadhi, a resident of Yellapur who owns a crane service, said that the Uttara Kannada administration approached him seeking assistance to rescue the survivors. “I received information at 4:45 am. My crane was used to lift the vehicle... many victims were buried beneath the vegetables,” he said.
Meanwhile, a local Siddi youth, Vijay Siddi, rushed to the spot and helped in rescuing the survivors. According to sources, Vijay owns a vehicle and came by himself to help the injured and took them to the hospital. “He came and took many of them in his vehicle to the hospital... later, after shifting the injured to the hospital, he just disappeared. All we know is that his name is Vijay Siddi. We do not know anything more,” said Balakrishna Naik.