Mobile phone to rescue of accident victim on Jammu-Srinagar highway

Recapping the events of the evening, police officials said on Wednesday that Khan, who is in his 30s, was able to inform police about the accident on his mobile phone. Though the location finder did not give his exact whereabouts, it helped rescuers get to him.Khan was trapped inside his badly damaged SUV for about 90 minutes, officials said.

It was dark, he was trapped inside his vehicle that had rolled down a gorge and was lodged precariously behind a tree but the young man had one saviour – his trusted mobile. Irfan Rashid Khan was on his way to his Lal Bazar residence in Srinagar when he lost control over his SUV, which plunged into a gorge at the Shani Dev Temple on the Jammu-Srinagar highway at Ramban around 7.30 pm on Tuesday. Recapping the events of the evening, police officials said on Wednesday that Khan, who is in his 30s, was able to inform police about the accident on his mobile phone. It also helped the rescue team reach Khan, who shared his location using Google maps. Though the location finder did not give his exact whereabouts, it helped rescuers get to him.

Khan was trapped inside his badly damaged SUV for about 90 minutes, officials said. Luck favoured him as his vehicle got stuck behind a tree, about 300 meters down a slope below the highway, they recounted. He could inform them about the accident but could not give the exact spot where it took place and shared his location using Google maps. The rescue operation, including police and civilian volunteers, was led by Deputy Superintendent of Police, Traffic, Shamsher Singh. The officials said the vehicle could not be traced for an hour. Later, during a manual search, the accident spot was traced to about 2.5 km behind the Google location. “The completely damaged vehicle was found stuck behind a tree on the steep rocky hill nearly 300 meters below the road. The rescuers used ropes to reach the victim and managed to pull him out of the vehicle within 30 minutes,” Singh told PTI. When they couldn’t find him – according to his Google map location -- he was asked to keep his mobile phone on and inform when he was able to hear the police siren.

“The trick worked and the victim was rescued with minor injuries around 9 pm,” the officer said. He appealed to commuters to drive cautiously and at a lower speed especially along the Ramban-Banihal sector to avoid accidents.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)