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2 killed, 17 injured in Udhampur accident

Ashwani Sharma
Early Times Report

Ramnagar, Oct 21: Two persons, including a four-year-old girl, were killed and 17 others injured after a passenger bus plunged into a deep gorge near Gulli Gala in the Panchound area of Basantgarh tehsil in Udhampur district on Wednesday morning.
According to reports, the bus bearing registration number JK02AL-3477 was travelling from Panchound towards Ramnagar when the driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle near Gulli Gala at around 7:30 am. There were 19 passengers on board at the time of the accident.
The deceased have been identified as four-year-old Takshika, daughter of Rakesh Kumar, a resident of Chhatrari, and Sunita Devi, wife of Kuldeep Kumar, a resident of Panchound. The accident left the bus badly damaged and triggered panic in the area.
Soon after the incident, local residents launched a rescue operation and pulled the injured passengers out of the damaged vehicle. They transported several victims to Ramnagar Hospital in private vehicles, while ambulances also reached the spot to assist in the rescue efforts. Police and health department teams swung into action following information about the accident.
Eleven injured passengers were referred from Ramnagar Hospital to Government Medical College (GMC), Udhampur, for advanced treatment. Of these, one injured person was subsequently referred to GMC Jammu due to head injury for further medical care.
The 11 injured referred from Ramnagar Hospital were identified as Sunita Devi (31), Hardik (7), Vivaan (8), Rattan Chand (50), Ravi Kumar (47), Kirav Bansal (8), Kavyansh (8), Aarti (18), Arshanya (9), Sulekha Devi (33) and Ankish Bharti (17).
Meanwhile, six other injured passengers — Rajan Dogra (18), Neelima Devi (50), Ankit Kumar (2), Rohit Kumar (15), Navneet Singh (15) and Shiv Dev Singh, son of Des Raj (27) — were undergoing treatment at Ramnagar Hospital.
The MLA from Ramnagar sunil Bardwaj also visited the hospital and enquired about the condition of the injured.
Following the accident, local residents expressed concern over the poor condition of the road connecting Panchound and surrounding areas. They alleged that the road had remained in a dilapidated condition for a long time and that inadequate safety arrangements posed a risk to commuters.
The villagers demanded immediate repairs and urged the government and concerned departments to take necessary steps to prevent such tragedies in the future.
The exact cause of the accident is yet to be officially established and will be ascertained after an investigation.