MUZAFFARABAD: At least 29 schoolchildren and their driver were injured after a van plunged off a treacherous hilly road in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Tuesday, police said.
Fatal accidents are common on roads in the mountainous regions of the country due to traffic rule violations, treacherous terrain and poor infrastructure.
The van, carrying boys and girls from the private Islamia Public School in Chikar, was returning students to their homes when it met with the accident near a spot known as Tambrial Mor, Jhelum Superintendent of Police (SP) Mirza Zahid Hussain told Dawn.com.
Chikar, a town and hill station in AJK’s Jhelum Valley district, is situated at an altitude of 5,272 feet above sea level and lies about 46 kilometres from Muzaffarabad, the state capital.
As a winter resort, Chikar’s educational institutions do not observe extended summer vacations, unlike other areas.
“It is assumed that after negotiating a bend, the vehicle went out of the driver’s control and fell down the road, causing injuries to almost everyone on board,” the SP said.
He said 16 people that were rushed to Chikar Tehsil Headquarters Hospital were later allowed to go home after treatment while of the 13 students hospitalised in Haitian Bala District Headquarters Hospital, two were kept there, and four others, including the driver, were referred to the Muzaffarabad Combined Military Hospital owing to their serious wounds.
“The rest of the school children were sent home,” he said.
A video clip shared by the SP showed the overturned van resting on a steep, forested slope, surrounded by local residents rushing to help.
“Had it not been for the tall trees that broke the fall, the van could have rolled further down the slope, resulting in heavier losses,” Hussain said.
Last week, six members of a family were killed in AJK’s Neelum valley when their car veered off the road and plummeted hundreds of feet, crashing onto the right bank of the river, officials had said.
In May, an assistant director, three inspectors and a constable of the AJK police lost their lives when their vehicle plunged into a deep ravine in the Poonch division.
