Boulder hits car on NH, woman among 2 killed

JAMMU: In a tragic accident, two persons, including a woman, were killed when their vehicle was hit by a boulder rolling down a hillock overlooking the Jammu-Srinagar national highway in Ramban district on Sunday.
Mohammad Ayoub Wani (48) of Pampore and his sister-in-law Khalida Begum of Budgam died on-the-spot in the incident which took place at Kellamore near an under construction four-lane tunnel, a police official said.
He said the duo was travelling in a Bolero from Jammu to Kashmir when their vehicle was hit by a boulder, forcing suspension of traffic on the highway for quite some time.
The traffic on the 270-km-long national highway is restricted to one-way during the winter and plies alternatively from the twin capitals of Jammu and Srinagar.
On Sunday, the traffic was allowed to ply from Jammu to Srinagar.
Another long traffic jam was witnessed on National Highway in Udhampur, leaving commuters stranded for hours on the road.
In view of the total failure on the part of Traffic Police, the public had to face a lot of problems, especially tourists who could not reach their respective destinations in time.
Official sources said that the vehicles remained stuck in traffic jam while the executive police which came out on the road to assist Traffic Police to overcome chaos and mess on the highway and internal roads in the town, also appeared helpless.
Sources said that the traffic chaos took place after three trucks had developed technical snag enroute to Udhampur from Patnitop.
With no assistance and non-presence of traffic police, the vehicles on both sides were stuck on road for six long hours.
The traffic police woke up from slumber hours after traffic jam took the shape of mess. Sources said that it took six hours to streamline the traffic.