“Maro Dikro doobi gayo, Maro Gharwalo Dubi gayo… (My son has drowned, my husband has drowned… Save us…)”
Among the first scenes from the site of the Mujpur-Gambhira bridge collapse in Vadodara district early on Wednesday morning, was a heartrending video showing a woman in a pink saree, calling for help to save her family members.
The woman, a resident of Dariyapura near Mujpur, has been identified as Sonalben Ramesh Padhiyar, 46, who was travelling in an Eeco car with eight other family members, including her two minor grandchildren, when a part of the bridge collapsed on the end of Vadodara district. Barring Sonalben, all the occupants of the vehicle are feared dead in the accident.
At SSG hospital in Vadodara, where she has been wheeled in with three other survivors, Sonalben is distraught. What was planned to be an outing to a place of worship to mark Guru Purnima, turned into a tragedy for the family.
Sonalben says, “We had set out from Dariyapura to Bagdana (Saurashtra) for pilgrimage for Guru Purnima around 7am. There were a few motorcycles, a truck and our car around us when the bridge suddenly collapsed. We just fell in a matter of seconds… Before we could even realise what happened, the vehicle had hit the water surface and was pulled into the river…”
When asked about the video in which she was seen crying for help, Sonalben says, “I was calling out to people to help my family… All of them were in the vehicle. I was the only one who managed to come out as I was in the rear. My husband, son, daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren as well as two other relatives were in the vehicle. It had fallen head first so there was no way they could have come out…”
The 45-year-old says that it was about an hour after the accident that help arrived. “No one came to help me… My entire family remained in water for that time. I knew I had lost them, who would survive such a car crash into Mahisagar? My grandson was the youngest, only two years old… It was after the police and other rescue team arrived with a boat that I came out. I don’t know where the rest of my family is…”
Another survivor pulled out from the river is Dilipsinh Padhiyar, a resident of Nani Sherdi village in Borsad taluka of Anand district. Dilipsinh was riding his two-wheeler and returning from the night-shift duty at a pharma company in Bharuch when the accident occurred. “I was on top of the bridge and traffic was moving as usual… I had barely covered 100 meters on the bridge when I felt a vibration and suddenly, the bridge had given way. I found myself falling into the river,” says Dilipsinh.
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He says, “I had suffered injuries but somehow, I gathered my inner strength and held on to some metal rod, I don’t know what it was. I climbed up and tried to stay afloat until help arrived… The local fishermen were the first to arrive with boats.”
Raju Doda Hathiya, a resident of Dwarka, who was driving a pick-up van from Dwarka to Ankleshwar, was among those who fell into the river as the vehicles plunged. Hathiya, who was rushed to the SSG hospital in Vadodara, says that the fall was “sudden”. Hathiya says, “There were two people in my vehicle.. going from Dwarka to Ankleshwar. I am not sure where my helper is… The truck just fell into the water. I came out from my side and sat on the top of the vehicle… Later, someone came and pulled me out in a boat.”
Hathiya says that at the time the portion of the bridge collapsed, there were at least three vehicles around him, apart from a couple of motorcycles.
‘Saw the bridge falling like a pack of cards’
Two men who had a “miraculous escape” recounted their moment of panic. Anwar Mohammad, a resident of Borsad, who was on his way to Jambusar in Bharuch district for work along with two other persons in a van, says he abandoned his vehicle to save his life. “We were just crossing the part that collapsed when I heard the sound of the bridge falling apart. Immediately, the three of us jumped out of the van and ran… We saw the bridge falling like a pack of cards. Our van fell into the river… Had we managed to drive just a few metres ahead, the van would have also been safe.”
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Two men from Kinkhlod, Mahesh Parmar and Vijay Parmar, say they “missed a heart’s beat” when they realised that the bridge was collapsing. “We had left our village for the day’s work… When we came over the bridge, riding our motorcycle, and it began to collapse, fear gripped us but I managed to press the brakes in time and bring the motorcycle to a halt. We abandoned our two-wheeler and ran to save our lives. Later, as things settled, we slowly climbed back on to the bridge to see what had happened. Several vehicles had plunged into the river. It was a tragic and heart-breaking scene… But for a moment earlier, we had missed a heart beat too.”
