It all happened in the blink of an eye

KOZHIKODE: It was for the first time that P P Anilkumar, the driver of actor Jagathy Sreekumar, faced an accident in his long stint in the travel service catering to the cinema industry. In the hospital bed, he is praying for a speedy recovery of ace comedian Jagathy Sreekumar, who suffered serious injuries along with him in the road accident happened on March 10.“It was only God’s grace that saved the lives of mine and Jagathy chettan (Jagathy Sreekumar). It happened in the blink of an eye and there were no reflectors on the median,” said Anilkumar, who is shifted to the room from ICU of MIMS Hospital here, after suffering serious injuries on the leg and chest.Anilkumar said that if there were reflectors on the median, he could have seen it and managed to avoid the crash. He added that he hadn’t felt sleepy at that moment as he had tea from Valancheri half an hour before the incident. As the vehicle was not the full option kind, it did not have the facility of airbags.  Anilkumar, a native of Perumbavoor, has four vehicles, all engaged in the service of persons in the cinema field. He is the preferred driver for Jagathy for long journeys.“On that day, we had fixed to go through Koyilandy-Vadakara-Kannur route from Chalakkudy to reach Kodagu, the location of ‘Idavappathy’. Hearing the news of violence in Koyilandy, we changed the route through Wayanad and chose the National Highway 17,” said Anilkumar.He said that Jagathy was lying comfortably in the front seat and fell into a good sleep. “Jagathy chettan only listens old Malayalam film songs during car journeys and we had stored the songs in a pen drive. But few hours ahead, he asked me to switch off the music. When I heard a sound, I looked for Jagathy chettan and called him and in that second, the car rammed onto the median,” added Anilkumar.“Surprisingly, my friend Anilkumar, a KSRTC driver called to my mobile phone. I told him the matter and that time Byju, a native of Panambra who saved us from the vehicle reached the spot and he explained what had happened over phone. By God’s grace an ambulance also reached the spot and we were rushed to the MIMS.”Anilkumar hasn’t had the habit of smoking and drinking and for this reason Jagathy Chettan prefers him, added Nimmy, wife of Anilkumar.