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UP: GPS error, dense fog causes car to fall from damaged bridge, three dead
Three people were reportedly misled by the GPS into a damaged under-construction bridge, a portion of which was washed away due to floods.
Three people were killed in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly on Sunday when their car fell into the Ramganga River from an under-construction bridge. They navigated using maps, but the app failed to indicate that a portion of the bridge was damaged, news agency PTI reported.
Police said the accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district. Police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Badaun's Dataganj police station were rushed to the scene immediately.
“Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the GPS. As a result, the driver was misled and did not realize the bridge was unsafe,” Circle Officer of the area Ashutosh Shivam said.
The GPS app reportedly misled the passengers into the under-construction bridge. The bridge also lacked safety barriers or warning signs, which added to the danger and led to the fatal accident.
According to the police, the car was driven at high speed, which did not allow the driver to salvage the situation. The driver could not spot the danger ahead as dense foggy conditions hampered visibility.
Among the deceased, two were identified from their ID cards as Amit and Vivek. Bareilly police said they were residents of Imadpur in Farukkabad. The identity of the third person is yet to be ascertained.
The circle officer said that the bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the accident is underway.
Fog leads to accident
In a similar case of fog hampering visibility, two accidents were reported from UP's Firozabad district on November 14. In one incident, 20 travellers of a roadways bus were injured, and another half a dozen were injured in another accident.
“It appears that a truck, also heading for Delhi, applied brakes and the driver of the roadways bus behind could not see the truck stopping. The bus rammed into the back of the truck. The front part of the bus suffered damages and 12 passengers suffered injuries,” said Ashwini Kumar, the inspector in-charge of Jait police station of Mathura district.
(With PTI inputs)
