Uttarakhand: 10 dead after vehicle falls into gorge in Pithoragarh

Ten people were killed in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district on Thursday morning after the vehicle they were travelling in fell in a 500-metre-deep gorge, officials said.

The victims were on their way from Bageshwar district to a temple near Hokara in the Pithoragarh district, said officials.

Earlier, Pithoragarh district magistrate Reena Joshi said the police and revenue officials reached the accident site to review the situation while the SDRF found ten bodies at the accident site.

Lalita Negi, media in-charge, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), said all ten bodies were been recovered from the gorge.

“In the morning, the local SDRF unit was informed by District Control Room, Pithoragarh that a vehicle has fallen into a gorge near Hokara, nearly 100 km from Pithoragarh town. Immediately, the SDRF rescue team from Askot and SDRF team from Kapkot left for the accident site”.

“The rescue teams recovered all the ten bodies by 3 pm with the help of local people and handed them to the police,” he said.

Negi said that upon reaching the spot, the team came to know that a Bolero vehicle (UK 02 TA 10845) had fallen into the 500-metre-deep gorge with 10 people in it. “These ten people from the Shama area of Bageshwar district were going to a temple at Hokara to offer their prayers there,” she said.

The deceased have been identified as Kishan Singh, 64, Dharam Singh, 69, Kundan Singh, 58, Nisha Singh, 24, Umesh Singh, 28, Shankar Singh, 42, Mahesh Singh, Mohan Singh (driver), 35, Sunder Singh, 37, Khushal Singh, 64 and Dhan Singh, 52.

Sundar Singh, a villager from Hokara village said boulders and debris had fallen on the road in the area due to heavy rains last night, creating traffic bottlenecks.

Meanwhile, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in his condolence message on his Twitter handle said “Very sad news has been received about the casualties of many people due to the accident of a vehicle coming from Shama in Bageshwar towards Nachni in Pithoragarh... I pray to God for peace to the departed souls. Om Shanti. Shanti. Shanti”

Last year 1,042 people were killed in 1,674 road accidents in Uttarakhand, with an accident severity of 62.24%. Accident severity means the number of persons killed per 100 accidents.

In 2021, 820 people were killed while 1,091 were injured in 1,405 accidents, with an accident severity of 59.94. In 2020, 674 people were killed, and the injured tally stood at 854 people with an accident severity of 64.75%, while in 2018, with 1,468 accidents and 1,047 dead, the accident severity was 71.30%.

There is no let up in the road accidents despite the improvement in the condition of roads in Uttarakhand.

Last year 26 people, including 14 women, were killed after a bus in which they were travelling from Madhya Pradesh to Yamunotri shrine fell into a 250-meter-deep gorge near Damta in Uttarkashi district.

The major cause of the accidents cited by experts is defective roads, over-speeding drunk driving, overloading, poor visibility, the inexperience of drivers, use of cell phones and defect in vehicles. One of the major reasons for road accidents in the state is the increasing traffic pressure on the roads.