About the accident, the Electricity Authority says: 'The wire was downed by lightning, we didn't find out in the morning.'
45-year-old Savina Poudel, a resident of Lalitpur Metropolitan City-10, had come to Taplejung with her children and parents for Pathibhara darshan. They came to Fungling on Sunday evening and stayed at Hotel Paris.
Along with Savina were 10-year-old son Bhabimay Acharya, 16-year-old daughter Adhya Acharya, Maiti's father Vinod Paudel, 70, resident of Jhapa Bhadrapur Municipality-15, and mother Sarita Paudel, 69. After staying at the
hotel, Savina asked the hotel owner, Savin Baniyan, to arrange a taxi to reach Kaflepati in the morning. Sawin contacted 42-year-old Durga Bhattarai, resident of Furumbu, Fungling Municipality-10, who is also the owner. It was decided that they would go to Pathibhara on Monday morning to worship the temple and return in the afternoon.
Bhattarai, the driver, reached the hotel around 3 o'clock in the morning. It was 3:30 when Savina's team came out prepared. They proceeded from Fungling towards Kaflepati. When they reached a place called Sevaro Chowk, the road was bumpy.
The driver, Bhattarai, who has been driving on this route for years, dodged the potholes of the road and drove the vehicle forward near the electric pole. He did not notice that the electric wire fell from above. As soon as the Bolero jeep hit the wire, the vehicle caught fire. Current flows. They didn't even leave the car and run away.
Savina's daughter Adhya, father Vinod and mother Sarita along with the driver Bhattarai died on the spot Savina was about to get down from the car, but her son Bhavimay got out a little faster, so she was less injured.
Behind them was a team including Janardan Bhandari from Bharatpur Municipality-4 Chitwan. Bhavimay, who was injured in the accident, left the burning car and stood on the road to stop the car carrying Bhandari. The car that touched the electric wire was burning. Bhandari, who was going to Pathibhara from the car behind
, saw Savina raising her hand in front of the burning car. Savina fell one and a half meters from the burning vehicle. Drag him away. According to Bhandari, it was not possible to rescue the four people including the driver in the burning vehicle.
There was no ambulance, no other vehicle . Bhandari then returned the vehicle he was riding in to Pathibhara, carried the injured Savina and Bhavimay and returned to Fungling. 'Savina was unconscious. The little brother was talking,' Bhandari said, 'When we returned and reached Suketar, the ambulance was leaving. Then we put the injured in the ambulance and brought him to the hospital.'
After first treatment at Taplejung Hospital, Savina was taken to Kathmandu by helicopter for further treatment. Her husband is working as a neurologist in a private hospital in Kathmandu. On his own initiative, the injured were taken to Kathmandu for treatment by helicopter.
Since then, Suresh Prasad Chowdhury, head of Electricity Authority Taplejung distribution center, has claimed that the wire fell due to last night's rain and lightning that broke the pin of the wire. Such an accident happened early in the morning.'
But because the authority does not carry out regular monitoring and maintenance, the electricity poles in this area look like electric shocks everywhere. Electric poles are down and in some places, wires are still hanging.
