Three persons, including a schoolteacher and a senior woman, died after a car plunged into a deep gorge near Sarahan in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district on Sunday evening. The lone survivor is undergoing treatment at Dr YS Parmar Government Medical College, Nahan.

The accident occurred around 7.30 pm, about 100 metres ahead of the Sarahan bus stand in the Pachhad subdivision, when the car reportedly went out of control and veered off the road into a deep gorge. The impact was so severe that the driver, Adhikari Jaitly (65), and Reena Sharma (48), a schoolteacher with the Education Department and a resident of Dhargaon, died on the spot.

The other two occupants, Urmila Jaitly (60), wife of Adhikari Jaitly, and their son, Yashasvi Jaitly, sustained serious injuries. Both were initially taken to a nearby hospital before being referred to Dr YS Parmar Government Medical College, Nahan. Urmila Jaitly later succumbed to her injuries, taking the death toll to three. Yashasvi Jaitly continues to receive treatment.

The district administration announced immediate relief of Rs 25,000 each for the families of the deceased and Rs 5,000 for the injured survivor.

Local residents said the accident site had witnessed a major road mishap in the past as well. They alleged that the stretch lacks crash barriers and urged the authorities to install safety measures to prevent similar accidents.

Confirming the incident, Pachhad SDM Priyanka Chandra said the police had registered a case and that the exact cause of the accident was yet to be ascertained. She added that the administration had provided immediate financial assistance to the affected families, while the police were investigating the incident from all angles.