THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thirteen-year-old Arya is yet to come out of the shock and trauma that the tragedy has inflicted on her. Arya Chandran, the seventh standard student of St Andrews Jyothy Nilayam High Secondary School who was undergoing treatment at CSI Mission Hospital at Kazhakoottam here, lost her cousin Aswin and childhood friend and neighbour Aromal after the school van carrying them lost control and plunged into the Parvathy Puthanaar at Channamkara near Kadinamkulam on Monday evening.Arya, who was lucky enough to escape with minor injuries, said she was rescued by an unknown ‘’chettan’’ after she fell into the water. “It all happened suddenly. The bus lost control and in no time fell on a country boat that was in the river. I, along with some other kids, escaped through the window and managed to remain on the boat. Aswin and Aromal were on the rear side of the van and were struggling to get out of it,’’ says Arya, who is yet to come to terms with the reality that she had lost her cousin and her neighbour.But owing to the weight of the van, the boat on which the kids, including Arya and others who are undergoing treatment at various hospitals, managed to stand capsized soon after water seeped into it. “I fell into the water and I was struggling to swim. Suddenly, someone who came to the rescue after hearing our cries managed to pull me up from the water,’’ Arya says.In the chaos that followed she was unable to notice Aswin and Aromal.“The last time I saw them they were trapped inside the van,’’ she said. Seventh standard student Linsha from the same school, who is also undergoing treatment at the pediatric ward of the CSI Hospital, said that she and other friends were able to escape only because the van landed on the country boat.“If the van had plunged into the water directly then we would have got stuck inside. Before water started gushing in, we managed to get out through the window and swim to safety. The local people who rushed to the spot helped us get to the banks of the canal,’’ she says.She also remembers that the three students who died were on the rear side of the van before it plunged into the water. “People staying in nearby houses rushed to the spot after they saw the accident. I don’t know how the van fell in the river. The van was moving slowly. After the accident we heard people saying that it lost control after the driver dodged the vehicle to avoid hitting a dog,’’ says Linsha who escaped with a minor injury on her hand.
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