Three men missing on way back from Bahraich found dead in car in Sitapur pond; police suspect driver dozed off

Rakesh had gone to Bahraich with his two friends to see his son, who had been injured in an accident. The three men went missing while they were coming home, and their families alerted the police when they did not arrive. A search was launched.

How the car was found

The reports do not agree on how long the men were missing. One report says that they were missing for about three days before the car was found, and others describe the search without giving a duration. The car was discovered in the pond, and the police arranged for a crane to lift it out. All three men were inside.

Inspector-in-charge Atul Chaudhary said that the police suspect the driver may have dozed off at the wheel, causing the car to veer off the road and into the pond. He said that the circumstances of the incident are being examined, which means that it is a theory and not a finding. The police have not said whether there were marks on the road, whether the pond is separated from the road by a barrier, or what the time of the accident was.

Cars falling into ponds, canals and drains beside roads are a regular cause of deaths in northern India, particularly at night and in the winter months, when fog reduces visibility and drivers who have been on the road for hours become tired. Roadside ponds in villages are often not fenced, and a car that leaves the road at speed can sink quickly. The fact that the car was not found for some time suggests that it was not visible from the road.

Safety experts recommend that drivers who have been behind the wheel for several hours stop for a rest, that long journeys at night be shared between drivers, and that travellers tell family where they are. The police and road authorities, for their part, can mark and guard such water bodies where they are close to highways.

For the families, the finding ends a search that lasted for days. One of the men was on his way back from seeing his injured son, who had been hurt in an earlier accident, so the family now has two tragedies to bear. The reports do not give further details about the families or about the condition of the son, and the police have asked relatives to come forward with any information about the journey. Villagers who live near the pond have said that the water is deep close to the road, according to the reports from the area, though no official statement on the depth or on safety measures has been given.

The postmortem reports will state the cause of death, which is expected to be drowning, and may show whether any of the men had injuries from before the car entered the water. The police will examine the car and the road, and they will speak to the families about the route that the men took and when they were last in touch. If there are no signs of anything other than an accident, the case will be recorded as such.

The reports do not mention any suspicion of foul play. The police are examining the incident as an accident, and they have said that their suspicion is that the driver dozed off. If further facts emerge, they will be reported, and for the present the case is a reminder of how quickly a moment of tiredness on a rural road can turn into a tragedy.