Daijiworld News Network - Puttur (GA)

Puttur, Aug 16: The 59th Independence Day proved fatal to four persons who were trying to cross the Hosmath Bridge on a cement-laden lorry on Tuesday August 15 afternoon.  The swollen Netravati engulfed the lorry as well as four persons.  Neither the lorry nor the missing persons have yet been found.

A lorry belonging to Gajanana Transport at Old Port in Mangalore was transporting cement to Lakshmi Enterprises at Kadaba.  But when the lorry reached near Hosmath Bridge (sinking bridge), the bridge had submerged under the water.  So vehicles on either side were waiting to cross the bridge. There was a big queue of vehicles.  At that time, the cement-laden lorry driven by Manjunath (30), son of Sesappa Moolya of Bedrala near Narimogru reached the spot.

However, instead of waiting on queue, Manjunath decided to cross the bridge despite the people telling him not to do so.  There was about 2 feet water flowing above the bridge.  But Manjunath, who had earlier once driven the vehicle on the same bridge in a similar situation decided to cross the bridge.  Lorry conductor Umesh Gowda (28), son of Soodlu Ramanna Gowda of Bilinele and two other persons too were in the lorry.    Their identity has not yet been established.

The lorry had left Mangalore on Monday August 14 night and had reached Alankar near here on the same night where, the driver and conductor stayed overnight.  They started back to Kadaba on Tuesday evening.

As the lorry reached the middle of the bridge, it could not withhold the pressure and slipped into the swollen Netravati River from the bridge.  As the lorry began sinking, 3 persons from the lorry came out and tried to swim and reach the river bank while another person was not at all spotted.   Though the three persons tried to swim across, they did not succeed.  They were spotted in the middle of the river for long, before they went out of the sight from the people standing on either side of the bridge.

None of them were found till late night on Tuesday.  Puttur assistant commissioner Dr K Appayya and police have already come to the spot and are guiding the rescue operations.  The administration has appealed the district administration to send expert divers and boats to assist the rescue operations.

Tahsildar V B Fernandes, ZP member Krishna Shetty, DySP Mithra Heraje, Kadaba SI Nandakumar and others are on the spot leading the rescue operations.