Ongole man swims to safety from gushing waters
The car that swept way in the stream and up in the woods; Thotakura Rajesh at his home in the early hours of Friday
Ongole : In a fortunate event, a man from Ongole escaped death by jumping of a car that was swept away in heavy flood in the Kothakota stream on Thursday night and swam to safety.
According to the police, the car of the Gangada Sujatha family, Prakasam district YSRCP Women president was struck at Chadalawada on NH-216 on Thursday evening due to overflowing of water. Her aides Thotakura Rajesh, Aravind, and Dara Rajesh went from Ongole towards Naguluppalapadu to pick Sujatha's husband from the trapped car.
Meanwhile, the police set up barricades to stop the movement of vehicles as three streams including the Kothakota stream and Gundlakamma tributary between Maddipadu and Naguluppalapadu were flowing over the road. But the three men made a place to cross the barricades and entered the Kothakota stream and tried to cross it but failed.
The car was struck in the mud for a while and swept away by the flood. In the meantime, Dara Rakesh and Aravind jumped off the car into the water and reached the opposite bund at last. Thotakura Rajesh was struck in the car sweeping in the stream in pitch darkness but managed to jump off it and swim to the opposite side.
The Maddipadu police started a search operation immediately after learning about the car swept away incident. As the water flow was high, they were unable to reach the two people on the other side but learned that one person was missing and started to search for him. Learning about the details of the people, the SB head constable Narasimha contacted Sujatha and found that the third person was Thotakura Rajesh, an ambulance driver from Pothuraju Palem of Ongole.
He used his contacts and sent men to the house of Rajesh to find any information from his family. Luckily, Rajesh contacted his family and announced that he was safe and coming to Ongole immediately. The high drama of searching Rajesh ended when he reached home safely at around 12.00 midnight and the police heaved a sigh of relief.
On Friday morning, the police identified the car in the woods downstream at about 200 meters and estimated that Thotakura Rajesh escaped death by swimming for about a half-kilometre or less. However, the SP Siddharth Kaushal ordered the concerned officials a detailed report on the incident.