4 killed, 9 injured as overloaded SUV plunges into gorge in J-K’s Doda

At least four people were killed and nine others were injured, two of them seriously, when an overloaded SUV plunged into a 300-foot gorge in a remote area of Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir in bad weather on Saturday morning.

“Around 10.45 AM on Saturday an overloaded Tata Sumo plunged into a deep gorge. The vehicle was on its way from Seru Khal Jugassar towards Gowari in remote Gandoh area,” Doda deputy commissioner Simrandeep Singh told HT over phone.

“At least four people have died and nine others are injured, two of them critically. The weather is bad and chopper cannot fly. Therefore, we are treating and stabilizing the injured at health centre in Gandoh,” he said. “Army, police and locals are carrying out the rescue operations.”

Seven of the injured will be to Doda district hospital while the two critically injured passengers will be airlifted to government medical college and hospital in Jammu as soon as the weather improves, he said.

Singh said that it was a clear case of overloading that led to the accident. There were 13 people including the driver in the eight-seater vehicle.

The dilapidated roads in the Doda region comprising Kishtwar and Bhaderwah coupled with official apathy and overloading besides reckless driving have made the region a death trap for the commuters.

Former Governor NN Vohra, who had a 10 year long tenure in the state, had repeatedly asked successive regimes in the state to check frequent road accidents in the hilly state, especially Doda region.

This is the fourth major accident in region in the last one month. On September 14, at least 17 people were killed after an overloaded minibus plunged into gorge in adjoining Kishtwar district.

On August 21, 13 Machail Yatra pilgrims were killed when their cab plunged into a gorge while seven people were killed and 12 others injured when two vehicles were hit by boulders a day earlier.

First Published: Sep 22, 2018 18:29 IST