Driver Sher Bahadur Thapa, 37, of Hiwalcha-5, Salyan, Dil Bahadur Rajali, 52, and Dhan Bahadur Basnet, 68, of Turnag-4, Gulmi, Khageshwar Aryal, 46, of Turnag-1, and Narayan Khanal, 47, of Turang-2, died on the spot when the jeep (Lu 1 Cha 3669) headed to Butwal from Turang, Gulmi, fell 150 meters off the Siddhartha Highway at four in the morning. [break]
Kamal Aryal and his wife Arti of Turang-1 and Dev Kala Rajali of Turang-4 have been injured in the accident that occurred 30 km away from Tansen along the Palpa-Butwal section of the highway. The Aryals are receiving treatment at the Lumbini Zonal Hospital, Butwal, and Rajali at Lumbini Medical College Teaching Hospital, Tansen.
Police reached the spot two hours after the accident. Even the locals of Kerabari Bazar, just 50 meters away from the spot reached only after the police arrived. Kamal Aryal was thrown out of the window as the jeep tumbled downhill and was stuck on the cliff while his wife, Arti, and father, Khageshwar, fell down trapped inside the jeep. Injured Kamal climbed up and reached the road and waited for vehicles for help.
“He had to wait for an hour to get a lift from a motorcyclist who brought him to the Dobhan Police Post for help” Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) of Traffic Police Resham Ranabhat said. “We sent him to Butwal for treatment and went to the place of accident,” Ranabhat added.
ASI Ranabhat said the accident occurred because the driver did not have enough sleep. “The passengers had apparently asked the driver to sleep for a while if he felt sleepy. But he was in a hurry,” Ranabhat said. He also said that the jeep had landed at a very difficult place and rescue of injured persons and pulling out dead bodies required seven hours.
Man going for his mother´s cremation dies
Dil Bahadur Rajali was informed about the death of his 90-year-old mother Dev Kala in Butwal by a relative Thursday evening. Dil Bahadur had reserved the jeep and left for Butwal from Turang at 10 pm with his wife Dev Kala. Instead of reaching on time for the cremation, he ended up losing his life in the accident while his wife is receiving treatment at the Lumbini Medical College Teaching Hospital, Tansen.
“Another tragedy struck us while going for the cremation of my mother-in-law,” Dev Kala said from the emergency ward. “They were waiting for the eldest son to light the funeral pyre at Devghat,” she added. The elderly´s other two sons who are in India need a few days to return, according to a relative Tek Bahadur Rajali.
Dev Kala has not been told about the death of her husband and is repeatedly asking for him with the nurses at the hospital. “I don´t know where they have taken my husband. It would have been better if they had kept us together in the same ward,” she said.
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