In one of the tragic incidents that occurred in the wee hours of Thursday, a speeding car skid off the road and plunged into the Zuari river killing all four occupants. The car apparently driven by a lady Prescilla D’Cruz had lost control before hitting the railings of the bridge and falling into the river.
The incident took place at night around 1 am when the deceased Prescilla along with her husband Henry Araujo and his brother Olvin Araujo and their neighbour Austin Fernandes was proceeding in her SUV car towards the capital city from Lotolim village where all four deceased belongs.
Mrs Prescilla was a former block president of the Congress Party from Loutolim village situated in south Goa.
The bodies of all the four deceased along with the car were retrieved by the police and Navy after a rigorous hunt of more than 5 hours, the deceased were identified as Prescilla D’cruz, her husband Henry Araujo, his brother Olvin Araujo and their neighbour Austin Fernandes. All the deceased belong to Loutolim, south Goa.
According to the reports, the search operations that were carried out at night by Goa police and Fire Services personnel could not complete due to the dark and the same was continued by the divers from the Indian Navy on a Thursday morning.
The teams carried out the rescue operation with barges, feeder boats and a crane. Close to 1 pm on Thursday, the SUV was pulled out using a crane. The bodies of the four deceased were found inside the car.
The report further stated that the car was spotted by the Navy divers under the bridge where it had fallen off and it was sunk deep inside the water around 20 meters below the surface of the water.
“Despite strong undercurrents in the river and inclement weather, we were successfully able to fish out the vehicle and the bodies of the deceased with the help of several other agencies, including the Navy,” said Shobhit Saksena, Superintendent of Police, North Goa.
“Further inquiry into the matter is being carried out including post-mortem of the deceased. The inquiry into the cause of the accident is still in the preliminary stage,” he added.
While rescue operations were underway, the Congress leaders, including Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Amit Patkar, Nuvem MLA Aleixo Sequeira and Viriato Fernandes, were at the accident spot. “She was a leader of our party from the Nuvem constituency. Our MLA has been at the spot monitoring the situation. What happened today is very sad,” Patkar said.
Source: Indian Express
