Panaji: Thursday marked another chapter in Goa's tragic story of lives lost on roads with three persons dead in separate incidents, including one on the Mandovi bridge wherein a biker from Nachinola, Javed Sadekar, got flung from his bike after head-on collision with an oncoming rent-a-cab car and plunged into the Mandovi river from the bridge.
The accident on the bridge occurred around 5.20 pm and the search and rescue operations were launched soon after by the Fire & Emergency Services who were later joined by Naval and Coast Guard personnel. However, Sadekar's body had not been retrieved until late in the night. Police managed to identify him as Javed Sadekar from Nachinola and only his helmet had been found. Sorties were made by the Coast Guard's helicopter and Naval deep sea divers were also called in to support the operation.
According to eye-witness accounts, Sadekar was heading towards Panaji while the rent-a-cab car driven by an Odisha native Ankit Tripathi was headed in the opposite direction but on the wrong side of the road. "The bike and the car crashed head on. The impact of the collision was such that the rider who got flung from his bike bounced from the dashboard of the car and plunged down into the river," one eye-witness account said. Sadekar, according to sources, was an employee of one of the casinos operating in the Mandovi river. Panaji Police have detained Ankit Tripathi who has suffered minor injuries and both the car and the bike have been attached.
Bambolim accident
Meanwhile, in another accident reported at Bambolim late Thursday evening an elderly pedestrian was knocked down by a KTC bus when he was crossing the road near the Holy Cross shrine. Gopal Gaonkar, a senior citizen from St Cruz aged 83, died later while undergoing treatment at the Goa Medical College and Hospital.
Dabolim accident
The third life lost in road mishaps on Thursday was that of Shaukat Ali (60), a painter from New Vaddem in Vasco, after his bike came under the wheels of a truck travelling in the same direction near the Dabolim railway overbridge at about 7 pm. Sources said Shaikh was grievously injured in the accident and locals who were at the site rushed him to the Chicalim Sub-District Hospital but he was declared dead on arrival. Vasco police have registered a case and is carrying out further investigation.
