G.Udayagiri: Two persons died while 10 others sustained injuries in three unrelated road accidents involving returning Odia migrant workers in less than 24 hours.
All these workers were returning from Gujrat’s Surat to Odisha after lockdown was relaxed to facilitate movement of stranded migrant workers.
Out of the three mishaps, two took place in the ghat regions of Odisha where unfamiliarity of ghat terrain for the drivers of Surat is being blamed behind the accidents.
While two persons died in a mishap that took place Saturday night at Kalinga ghat, five persons sustained injuries in another accident that took place Sunday.
In the first case, the driver of the bus somehow lost control on the vehicle and slammed the brakes suddenly following which two passengers crashed into the front windshield shattering it and fell off the bus.
One of the men died on impact on the spot. The second breathed his last while being ferried to the hospital.
In the second case, five sustained injuries after the driver lost control over the vehicle while taking a turn in the ghat section and crashed. Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of G Udayagiri JK Behera reached the spot along with the police team and rescued the victims.
On the other hand, in another unrelated road mishap, five passengers were injured when a bus carrying around 50 Odia migrant workers from Surat overturned on Nagpur-Amravati National Highway (NH) near Karanja in Maharashtra in the wee hour of Sunday.
The injured men include the driver, conductor of the bus and three migrant workers. The injured are being treated at nearby Karanja hospital in Maharashtra.
Sources said, the bus left Surat for Ganjam Friday evening. The incident took place when the driver of the vehicle lost control over the wheels amid limited visibility following which the bus turned turtle.
PNN