HIMVANI
The police today retrieved the bodies of the sixteen persons who died on Saturday night after the vehicle in which they were travelling fell off the road near Kingal in district Shimla. They all were members of marriage party and were on board a tempo-taxi. The accident occured at Bithal, which is about 2.5 kilometers short of Kingal in district Shimla, when taxi’s tyre came off, forcing the vehicle off road and 300 meters down the cliff. The vehicle landed on the bank of river Sutlej.
The dead include eight women. Eighteen persons including the driver were on board the taxi at the time of accident and the only survivor is an 11 year old boy Rohit. He was sitting in his mother’s lap and after being rescued he was shifted to Rampur hospital. Another boy, 14 year old Kailash is missing.
The tempo taxi number HP-01-A-2355 was a part of marriage party that was enroute Kingal from Remo village in district Kullu. According to the Police accident happened between at about 8 p.m, on Saturday, but their comrades traveling in other vehicles sensed it after sometime, as the ill fated taxi was moving at the end of the convoy and the other vehicles had traveled much ahead of the spot of accident.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Maan Singh who reached on the spot along with the SDM said that traces on the spot hint that one of the tyres came off after which the vehicle skid off the road. “Following the traces of the skidding on the road the fellows searching them spotted the vehicle on the dry river bed of Sutlej. All the victims are relatives”, said Maan Singh. The police faced difficulty in rescuing the bodies from the spot as the vehicle had gown down a cliff and landed at a spot which was not easily accessible. All the bodies have been retrieved, but one boy is missing, whose search is on”. The list of dead persons released by the administration includes four couples, Khoduram and (wife) Savitri of Maidhar village; Jialal and Janka Devi; Shamlal and Leela and Amarchand and Ramila Devi of village Dankapat. The others are Rajiv Kumar, Hukum Ram and Kamla Devi of village Dankapat; Somesh Kumar of village Jiara, driver Madan Lal of village Sarlog and Mandati of Saneri.
