Silapathar accident: 2 bodies recovered, driver yet to be traced

Dhemaji: A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) recovered the bodies of Tankeswar Kalita and his daughter Kuki Kalita after a two-hour long search operation on Friday morning. However, no trace of the driver — identified as Niranjan Mahato — is yet to be found. The vehicle has also been recovered with joint effort of the teams.

Meanwhile, locals asserted that this is not the first time that such an incident has taken place in the spot. There have been several such incidents that were caused due to narrow width of the bridge and lack of a signage warning people of the accident-prone area.

“While constructing the national highway into a two-lane road the bridges were left out which are not broad enough. Meanwhile, we often see signage in and around an accident prone area but there is no such warning placed in the area. For vehicles coming from Lakhimpur, there is a sharp turning just before reaching the bridge which makes it difficult for vehicle drivers to judge the width of the road. Most of the people that met an accident here were people travelling from other parts and are not aware of the fact that this is an accident prone area,” a local mentioned while speaking to the media.

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The vehicle with four of a family and a driver fell into the river after it hit a bridge railing at Sisibor village in the state’s Dhemaji district on Thursday morning. They were returning from Lakhimpur after attending a wedding.

Following the incident, locals rushed to the spot managed to rescue Tankeswar Kalita’s wife Sarumai Kalita and daughter Babita Kalita while Kalita and another daughter’s body could be recovered only on Friday morning. The team of NDRF, SDRF teams, police and local administration are still engaged in tracing the missing person.

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