16 dead, 23 injured in Ramban accident

16 dead, 23 injured in Ramban accident
Yash Khajuria	9/13/2011 10:39:38 PM
JAMMU, Sept 13: 16 people today lost their life and 23 others were injured when a bus skidded off a road and fell into a deep gorge in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban district. Reports said that the vehicle was on way from Ramban to Banihar and met with the accident on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway leading to death of the passengers. Many of the injured were later shifted to Government medical College (GMC) Jammu for treatment. The vehicle rolled down the 400-ft Khooni Nala at Nashri, 200 kms from here, they said, adding at least 16 people were feared killed while 23 others were injured in the mishap. After getting the reports, Army and police launched the rescue and relief operation. In recent past district has witnessed number of accidents involving busses, Sumo’s and Matadors in which many people have died or have received grievous injuries, putting question mark on the functioning of the traffic and police department. It is pertinent to mention here that today about 18 students were injured when a matador carrying students from Chanderkote to Ramban skidded off the road. In the incident one student had received serious injuries. Recently on September 8, a TATA Sumo bearing registration No:- JK02W-4932 had met with an accident on Karol-Kundi road in which two persons had lost their lives and three other were injured Government has asked the district administration Ramban to submit a detailed report within one month to find reason why the number of accidents has increased in the district and fix the responsibility for the same. As per the directions, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Bashir Ahmed Khan has been appointed as inquiry officer to conduct the enquiry to ascertain the reasons due to which the number of road accidents has increased in recent past claiming number of precious lives. Sources said that enquiry team has also been directed to inspect the vehicles in the district and make a detailed list of the old vehicles plying on the roads so that necessary action could be taken against them. “It has been directed to fix the responsibility due to which accidents have happened and suggesting preventive measures so as to avoid such accidents in future. There is great resentment among the people”, said a source.