A three-year-old child, who fell off a moving van in one of the hairpin curves of Agumbe Ghat Road on Thursday night, was rescued and handed back to her parents, thanks to an advocate who found the child in time.
Anwi, daughter of Binu who runs a hotel at Kottigehara in Chikkamagaluru district, escaped unhurt. The family had visited Kerala and the incident took place when they were returning to their native place via Agumbe Ghat.
The police said that when the vehicle reached the seventh hairpin curve at 8.30 p.m., the back door unlocked owing to a technical problem in the sensor system and the child slipped down. The parents were asleep and did not realise.
The child was found standing and weeping on the roadside by Vinay, an advocate who was heading towards Udupi from Tirthahalli. He took the child in his car and handed her over to the Agumbe police station. The personnel there took care of the child until the family could be traced.
Around 9.30 p.m., the family realised that Anwi was not in the vehicle. They then returned to Agumbe. The personnel at the check-post of the Department of Forest and Wildlife informed them that the child was at Agumbe police station. After receiving a written undertaking from the parents regarding the incident, the police handed over the child to them.
As Agumbe Ghat Road is part of Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary that is frequented by predatory animals, including leopards, at night, local residents have said that it was a miraculous escape for the child.
In a similar incident in Kerala last year, a one-year-old baby had a miraculous escape after she accidentally fell off a moving vehicle in a dense forest area.
