Eight persons died and another eight were injured when the vehicle they were travelling in fell into a deep gorge in Khunna village of Kalsi in Dehradun district late on Saturday night. It is learnt that the driver of the vehicle was ferrying passengers to Chakrata when it plunged into the gorge.
The in-charge of the Kalsi police station, Hari Om Chauhan, told 'The Pioneer' that the site of the accident is 70 m from Kalsi town. He said that the police got to know about the accident at 1.30 am but because of rain and darkness rescue operation could get started only on Sunday morning.
The police and a rescue team fished out eight bodies from the accident site and took eight injured to the hospital.
The accident probably occurred when the driver of the vehicle in an effort to steer clear of the debris fallen on the road due to rain tried to take the vehicle from the outer edge of the road supported by an embankment which caved in plunging the vehicle into the 200 feet deep gorge.
Those killed in the accident included five residents of Khunna village - Suman Devi (28), Taro Devi (28), Ankit (27), Meera Pandey (35) and Asha (7) - and three of neighboring Kyari village - Painthi Das (40), Kiran (13) and Subhash (10). The injured were admitted to lehman hospital Herbartpur.
The incident sent shockwaves in the tranquil Jaunsar area of Dehradun districty. Braving the rain, a large number of people attended the funeral of the deceased which was held at Yamuna Bridge crematorium in Kalsi.
One eyewitness said that due to blockade of Kalsi-Chakrarta main road caused by heavy rain many vehicles were making a detour by a narrow stretch of road and the ill-fated vehicle's driver too was driving on this road.