Doda accident one of the biggest in J&K in years

Jammu, Nov 15 (PTI) At least 37 people were killed and 19 injured when a bus carrying passengers skidded off the road and rolled down into a 300-foot gorge in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district on Wednesday, officials said.

The bus bearing registration number JK02CN-6555 was reportedly carrying 56 passengers, they said, adding that it skidded off the road near Trungal-Assar on the Batote-Kishtwar national highway and fell 300 feet downhill.

This is probably the biggest accident in Doda district in the last few years.

On July 1, 2019, 35 people were killed and 17 injured when an overloaded mini-bus veered off the road and fell into a gorge in Kishtwar’s Sirgwari area.

On October 6, 2018, 21 people were killed and 15 injured when an overcrowded mini-bus fell into a 200-foot gorge after its driver lost control over the vehicle on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, near Kela Morh, in Ramban district.

On September 14, 2022, 11 people, including four women, died and 29 were injured when an overcrowded mini-bus plunged into a gorge in Poonch district.

On September 14, 2018, 17 passengers were killed and 16 injured when a mini-bus skidded off the road and plunged into a gorge in the Dandaran area of Kishtwar district.

On May 30, 2023, 10 Vaishno Devi pilgrims, most of them from Bihar, were killed and 57 injured as their bus skidded off the road and rammed into the railing of a bridge, before falling off it at Jajjarkotli in Jammu district.

On May 24 this year, seven people were killed and three injured after a cruiser vehicle skidded off the road and fell into a gorge at the Dangduru dam site in the Dachan area of Kishwar.

Eight people were killed and three seriously injured when their car skidded off the road and plunged into a 300-foot gorge in Kishtwar on August 30.

On June 27, five people were killed and 12 injured when their vehicle fell into a gorge on the Bhadarwah-Pathankot road in Doda.

Four people, including women, were killed and five injured after a car fell into a roadside gorge at Thanamandi in Rajouri district.

Six people were killed in road accidents in Doda on October 8 and October 20.

On November 6, three people were killed and at least 16 injured in a road accident in the Rehan area of Rajouri district, officials said.