Three of family die as car falls into canal at Kanakkankadavu
Two-year-old baby among dead; Belbi who was driving swam to safety.
Thrissur: Three members of a family including a two-and-a-half-year-old baby drowned as the car in which they were travelling, lost control and fell into a canal by the road at Kanakkankadavu in Puthanvelikkara on Saturday night. The deceased are Honey, 32, wife of Kaimathuruthu Belbi in Puthenvelikkara, Belbi’s two-and-a-half-year-old son, Aarano, and his wife’s mother-in-law, Mery, 65. Belbi who was driving the car escaped from drowning by managing to open the door car and swimming to safety.
The deceased are residents of Thuruthoor near Puthenvelikkara police limit. The incident occurred while the family was returning at night after visiting the house of a relative at Aalamattam. Because of the strong undercurrent in the five-metre-deep canal due to the monsoon rain, the rescue operations by the local people were in vain. The last body to be recovered was that of the child at 2 a.m. by the Fire and Rescue personnel.
The locals and police said that the colour of the ground and the water in the canal looked similar during the rains. The car fell into the canal while taking a left turn. It is an accident-prone area during monsoon and handrails need to be erected by the road at the earliest to prevent such accidents, local people, said.