Three persons were killed and two injured when an ambulance rolled down a gorge near the Manguwal barrier on the road to Chintpurni in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab on Saturday, police said.
The ambulance was carrying a heart patient from Tanda in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh to Ludhiana when the accident occurred. The patient and his two sons-in-law died in the mishap, while the ambulance driver and a relative of the deceased survived with serious injuries.
They were taken to Hoshiarpur’s civil hospital from where they were shifted to another private health facility.
Police said the driver lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a sharp bend.
Local residents helped the police extricate the bodies and the injured.
Sadar police station house officer Madan Singh said that people from nearby areas informed the police when they heard the cries of a woman.
“With the help of locals, we pulled the two injured from the 400-ft deep gorge and sent them to the civil hospital. The bodies were extricated later and sent for post-mortem,” the SHO said.
The deceased were identified as Onkar Chand, the patient, Rakesh Kapoor and Sanjiv Kumar, all residents of Pathiyar village in Kangra’s Nagrota Bagwan tehsil.
{{/usCountry}}The deceased were identified as Onkar Chand, the patient, Rakesh Kapoor and Sanjiv Kumar, all residents of Pathiyar village in Kangra’s Nagrota Bagwan tehsil.
{{/usCountry}}Rakesh Kapoor’s sister Sarika said that Onkar Chand had suffered a heart attack and was taken to the Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College in Tanda from where he had been referred to the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana.
“My brother and his brother-in-law Sanjiv and a sister-in-law Renu were accompanying the patient in the ambulance,” she said.
Manguwal barrier on the Chintpurni road, about 20km from Hoshiarpur, is an accident-prone spot. The road winds through hills with gorges on both sides.