Ludhiana, August 25
At least 11 persons, including four children and three women, were dead and six others injured when their Matador fell into the Sirhind feeder canal near Pawad village today.
All, but one, of the dead belonged to a family at Sahnewal. The oldest member of the family, Jagir Kaur, also lost her life in the accident. The family was on its way to Chamkaur Sahib to pay obeisance as one of six sons of Jagir Kaur, Jasbir Singh had been blessed with a son. His two brothers and their families were also accompanying him. The one-month-old baby had a miraculous escape.
The accident occurred when the driver of Matador, Tirlochan Singh, lost control of the vehicle after hitting a scooter on the Pawad-Sehjomajra village bridge over the canal and fell into it. There were about 20 persons in the Matador of which 10 bodies had been recovered.
The dead include Jagir Kaur (60), Gurpreet Kaur (16), Gurjit Singh (7), Gurmeet Kaur (12) — all children of Narinder Singh (Jagir Kaur’s son), and their other relatives Mandeep Singh (9), Swaranjit Kaur (40), Rakesh Rani (46) and scooter driver Gurpreet Singh.
The bodies of Gurpreet Kaur, Tirlochan Singh (28), his wife Kulwinder Kaur (25) and their three-year-old daughter Bhupinder Kaur could not be recovered till late evening.
Gurmit Kaur, mother of the scooter driver, was seriously injured and admitted to CMC along with another injured Manpreet Kaur. Parmjit Kaur, wife of Narinder Singh, whose three children died in the accident, Navjot Singh, son of Tirlochan Singh, and another relative Jasvir Singh were admitted to Machhiwara primary health centre.
Residents of Pawad village were the first to join the rescue work as the police team reached the accident site after one hour. While the accident is reported to have taken place at about 1 p.m., the recovery van of the Ludhiana traffic police reached there at 4 p.m.
Jasbir Singh almost lost his entire family in the accident. He had fallen on the bridge when the Matador fell into the canal.
