Five people, including two women, were injured on Sunday morning when the driver lost control of an SUV and fell into a 50-metre-deep gorge near the Tilwara petrol pump on the Kedarnath National Highway, police said.
The victims were travelling from West Bengal towards the Kedarnath shrine, they said, adding that all occupants of the SUV were rescued.
The incident occurred on the stretch between Rudraprayag and Agastyamuni when the SUV (Mahindra XUV700) rolled down the hillside and landed upside down in the shallow waters at the edge of the Mandakini River.
Upon receiving information, police personnel from the Tilwara outpost and Agastyamuni police station rushed to the spot. Teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), District Disaster Response Force (DDRF), and the 108 emergency ambulance service were also deployed to the spot immediately.
During the joint operation by the police, SDRF and DDRF, all five occupants were rescued from the overturned SUV, the police said.
Two women sustained serious injuries in the accident, including fractures. The driver and two other men escaped with minor injuries. All the injured passengers were shifted to the District Hospital in Rudraprayag.
The injured have been identified as Prince Singh, 30, of Jharkhand’s Palamu, Sabhima Singh, 28, of West Bengal, Sujon Mukherjee, 27, and Rija Mukherjee, 30, both residents of Assam’s Jalpaiguri, and the driver, Pradeep Kumar, 35, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya, police said.
