Ooty: Seven polive personnel suffered minor injuries when a police van, part of the convoy escorting the mortal remains of the IAF chopper crash to Sulur air base from Coonoor, met with an accident on the Ghat road Wednesday.
Sources said the axle of the police vehicle which was going behind the ambulances carrying the bodies of Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others, broke near a turn on the Parliyar ghat road, resulting in the accident.
The presence of mind of the van driver averted a major accident as he acted swiftly and brought the vehicle to a halt by hitting a roadside rock. Seven police personnel suffered minor injuries in the accident.
Doctors, who were travelling in an ambulance which was coming behind the escort van, provided first aid and shifted the injured to the Mettupalayam government hospial for treatment.
However, the ambulances carrying the bodies of the chopper victims proceeded to Sulur without any hindrance as a large number of people, carrying National flags in their hands, lined up on both sides of the road all along the route and paid their tributes to the deceased.
Meanwhile, minutes after the police van escorting the bodies of IAF chopper crash met with an accident, one of the ambulances carrying the mortal remains, was involved in a minor mishap near Mettupalayam.
The bodies were being taken by road from Madras Regimental Centre (MRC) in Wellington in Coonoor to Sulur air base when the two accidents occurred.
This resulted in a minor delay as the ambulance, which suffered minor damages in the front portion, was stopped. The accident occurred about 45 km from Sulur air base.
The bodies were shifted to another ambulance and taken to Sulur air base from where they were flown to Delhi by a special IAF aircraft for last rites.
Locals helped in shifting the bodies to another ambulance which came to the spot within minutes on receipt of information.