THIRUVANANTHAPTRAM: Just seven months. The river is the same, so is the manner of the accident. The banks have not an inch of space that is bereft of people. Loud cries rent the air as the Parvathy Puthanar once again claimed the lives of school children. If the van that overturned into the river at Karikkakom in February took away the lives of six tiny tots and an ayah, this time around fate has been a little merciful, with just three deaths as this paper went to print. The search continued even after dusk fell. The students who were travelling in the van were studying in the Jyothinilayam School, St Andrews, at Channankara, but there were unconfirmed reports that students from some other schools had also got into the van. The numbers were put somewhere between 23 and 30, of which 17 children were saved. The children who lost their lives were identified as Aromal S Nair, Ashwin and Kaniha Santhosh. Fourteen children were brought to the SAT Hospital, out of which the condition of two girls, Krishnapriya and Devika, continued to be critical till late in the evening. All the others were out of danger. Eight children were initially admitted to CSI Mission Hospital at Kazhakkoottam, of which three were brought dead. The accident happened while the van was moving from Channankara to Perumathura, when it overturned and the students fell into the depth of Parvathy Puthanar. The students who were in the van were all aged between 4 and 14. If the February accident at Karikkakom happened in the morning, while the children were going to school, this time the accident happened while the children were returning home from school. This, however, cut short the time for rescue operations as daylight faded in just about two hours after the accident.Just as in the Karikkakom accident, it was the local residents who initiated the rescue work, by lifting the van out of the water. The van, fortunately, this time, fell on a canoe and did not submerge fully. However, it was suspected that a few children may have fallen beneath the upturned canoe that was full of sand. If it was the root of a tree and lack of sidewalls that caused the Karikkakom accident, the police said this time it was the attempt by the driver to rescue a dog that lurched across the van that caused the accident. The van went out of control and the driver, who survived, in an interview to a television channel, said that the van had overturned despite him trying to apply the brakes. Over-speeding was totally ruled out by the police. However, there are several roads in the city next to the waterways that still do not have sidewalls, the most dangerous of them being the Chackai-Karali road that looks like a twin of the ill-fated Chackai-Karikkakom road. The Krishna Nagar Road at Ulloor and the Kundamonkadavu bridge have also been giving nightmares to the city residents. One possible reason that the death toll was a little less in this horrible repetition of fate, may have been the less-polluted nature of Parvathy Puthanar at Channankara. The river, polluted after its course through the city, had caused severe infection even in the children who were rescued from the water. One of them, Irfan, continues to live with a damaged brain.
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