Guwahati, Feb 18: In a tragic incident, an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer died on the spot after the vehicle, which he was driving, met with a road accident at Bosagaon Chariali in the Kaziranga area under Kohora police outpost in the wee hours of Friday, police confirmed.
The deceased, identified as Flight Lieutenant George Kuriyakarj, was on the wheel, when his vehicle collided with a trailer truck coming from the opposite direction.
The IAF officer, who was a pilot for the Air Force’s Sukhoi fighter aircraft, was reportedly on his way to Jorhat from Tezpur when the incident happened.
The impact of the collision was so high that the front half of the vehicle, a black SUV (MG Hector), bearing registration number HP 38 G 0571, was completely damaged, apparently compressed beyond repair.
“According to our early-morning patrolling team, the mishap happened at Bosagaon Chariali around 2.30 am on Friday. We rushed to the spot immediately after we were informed by the patrol party only to find the IAF officer, who was driving the vehicle, dead,” Kohora police outpost assistant sub-inspector Jayanta Borah informed The Shillong Times.
Reportedly, the trailer’s co-pilot is said to have suffered grievous injuries in the crash.
“The body of the IAF officer was sent to Golaghat Civil Hospital for post-mortem,” Borah said.
According to reports, the area has in the past seen many accidents, with over-speeding and difficult weather conditions at night (affecting visibility) such as fog and rain being the prime reasons.
Last year, the state forest department in Assam had installed speed meters in the Kaziranga area along National Highway-37 (which passes through Kaziranga National Park) to keep a check on over-speeding vehicles and save lives of wild animals from Kaziranga National Park who cross the road to move to higher land, especially during floods.
Notably, hundreds of wild animals in Kaziranga, every year, lose their lives after being hit by speeding vehicles.
