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Araku Valley mishap: Victims kin blame driver’s negligence

Hyderabad: Uncertainty prevailed among family members and relatives of victims of Friday’s Araku road mishap at Shaikpet here in the city on the condition of the injured persons. They alleged negligence on part of driver Srisailam and the Dinesh Travels management. On Saturday, relatives of the one of the deceased, K Satyanarayana (50), his months’ […]

By Telangana Today

Published Date - 13 February 2021, 10:24 PM

Araku Valley mishap: Victims kin blame driver’s negligence

Hyderabad: Uncertainty prevailed among family members and relatives of victims of Friday’s Araku road mishap at Shaikpet here in the city on the condition of the injured persons. They alleged negligence on part of driver Srisailam and the Dinesh Travels management.

On Saturday, relatives of the one of the deceased, K Satyanarayana (50), his months’ old granddaughter Sri Nitya and K Saritha and N Latha, all belonging to the same family, spent hours waiting to get information of the well being of their other family members.

Speaking to the media, Kavitha, a relative said: “We contacted our friends in Araku who are closely following up the situation. Currently, all the injured are being treated at the King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam. Though most of them had head injuries, even until this afternoon, except for first-aid no treatment was started.”

The relatives also alleged that the driver was inexperienced and had no experience driving on ghat roads like those in Araku. “The driver is learnt to have not driven beyond Vijayawada and had absolutely no experience of driving on ghat roads. As per the information, even as he was being warned, he continued to drive rashly in the dark, which led to the mishap. The travels management had promised another experienced driver, but changed him at the last moment,” said Rajiv, another relative, requesting the State government to shift the injured to Hyderabad and provide better treatment.

Meanwhile, Jubilee Hills MLA M Gopinath visited the bereaved family members. He made arrangements for some family members to fly to Visakhapatnam too. Four tourists, including an infant from Shaikpet, were killed while 20 others were injured after the minibus they were travelling in fell into the valley on the Dumuku Ghat Road in Ananthagiri of Visakhapatnam late on Friday. All the passengers on the bus were from Hyderabad.

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