NH 31 A accident reports - 3 killed 6 injured in Hanuman Dara and Coronation Bridge

In two separate accidents that occurred on NH 31 A , three persons were killled and six injured  near Hanuman Dara and Coronation Bridge respectively.

The first accident was reported at Hanuman Dara on NH 31 A in Kalimpong Sub Division area in which a white Maruti van (WB 77-5092) fell around 300 feet down from the roadside into the Teesta valley. As per the Rambhi Police sources, they had been informed about the accident at around 7am  in the morning by the locals of the Hanuman Dara regarding the Maruti Van accident.A Police official said that as soon as the information reached us about the accident, we visited the spot and started the rescue operation with the help of locals. But unfortunately, all the three persons we recovered were already dead. It took a while to recover the dead bodies as the weather was bad and with the gradient very steep in the valley it took several hard efforts.He further said that as per the deceased family members, yesterday evening at around 3 to 4 pm, they had left Darjeeling for Siliguri. It is very difficult to pinpoint the exact time of the mishap . However, it has been revealed that it may have happened between 1am to7am in the early hours. He further said that the actual cause of the mishap is yet to be ascertained. However circumstances around the accident site indicate that they may have lost control of the vehicle when they were trying to avoid a landslide coming down at them. A long stretch of the side walls of the road have crashed down and debris accumulated alongside the road. Hence, the incident may have occurred during the landslide or in order to save themselves from the landslides. The night had also witnessed heavy torrential rainfall.The deceased have been identified as Nima Tshering Yolmo, resident of Aalubari, Darjeeling, Mani Kr. Rai resident of Sinchel Road, Jorebunglow, Darjeeling, and Santosh Gahatraj resident of Naya Busty,11th Mile, Lopchu, Darjeeling.The dead bodies have been sent to the Kalimpong sub division hospital for post mortem.In another incident, a Sikkim bound Siliguri Max vehicle (SK 01J- 1443) met with an accident and fell down on the bank of Teesta River from the NH 31 A road. The accident occurred around 1 km away from Coronation Bridge at around 8.15am.The Kurseong Police IC,Mr. Robin Thapa said that the police personnel from Sevoke Out Post reached the spot and rescued all the six injured persons from the accident site  from the bank of the river with the help of locals.He said that all of them have been presently  admitted in a private nursing home in Siliguri. The actual cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained but preliminary investigation reveals that the cause of the accident was high speed and reckless driving. A case has been registered and  investigation is on .The injured have been identified as Dil Bahadur Dahal, resident of Pelling Sikkim, Pasang Tamang and  Pawan Jha of Siliguri, Sanjay Mondal, from Gairibansh Jaldhaka, Indrajeet Das from Haidal Para, Siliguri and Minduk Tshering Bhutia, resident of Pakyong Sikkim.

Mukesh Sharma