PATHANAMTHITTA: There are hints that the car fell into a canal in Adoor as the driver drove the car using Google maps. These are indications given by the injured in the accident and the members of the fire brigade who came for the rescue operations. The driver drove through the Adoor bypass road to Haripad, checking the route in Google map. Although the map showed that he had to turn left, he accidently applied the accelerator and fell into the canal.

The locals, police and the nearby fire brigade reached the spot soon after the incident. There were seven people in the car that had Kottarakkara registration. They were soon rushed to the Adoor general hospital. Out of the seven, three died. The dead have been identified as Shakuntala (55), Kanjirathummoottil Indira (57) and Sreeja (45), natives of Ilamadu in Ambalamukku.

The group met with the accident while on their way to attend the sari giving ceremony to the bride, before the wedding. Others in the car have sustained only mild injuries. The injured have been identified as Sarath (36) of Happy Villa Ambalamukku, Indira’s daughter Bindhu (38), Bindhu’s son Alan (14) and Aswathi Krishnan (27) of Ilamadu A K Bhavan.

The accident occurred at around noon 1:15 pm on Wednesday, while they were on their way to give sari to Amal Shaji’s bride. Amal's house is near Ayoor Ambalamukku petrol pump. The house of Indira and Shakuntala are also nearby. Sreeja was Amal’s neighbour earlier. All of them had a close relationship with Amal’s family.

KSEB official S Jayakumar, a native of Neyyattinkara, rescued three of the victims who had fallen into the canal. He came to know about the accident, on his way to work along with a co-worker, when he spotted the locals looking into the canal near the Karuvatta church.

At the time, a woman was drowning in the canal. Jayakumar immediately jumped into the canal and rescued her. Afterwards, he rescued 13-year-old Alan and Bindhu as well. However, he was unable to rescue Indira.