Kottayam: An SUV carrying tourists from Telangana to Kerala fell into a stream at Kuruppanthara pier bridge, following misdirection by the Google map navigation app.
Luckily all medical students including a girl travelling in the car managed narrow escapes in the early hours on Saturday.The incident took place around 3 am. The tourists from Hyderabad were proceeding to Alappuzha from Munnar tourism destination centre, by following the Google App navigation directions.
There are two main roads before the bridge, one goes along the stream and other towards Alappuzha via Kambam- Cherthala. But Google App wrongly directed to take a left turn towards the stream and the car plunged into the stream.They travellers were not familiar with the road. At first, the driver could not identify the stream and assumed that the car was running through a waterlogged road due to heavy rain.
Within minutes, the car sank in the water, and one student managed to escape through the rear window and he alerted the nearby locals.A patrolling police team, fire brigade personnel and locals rescued three tourists from the car after it already moved around 200 metres from the motorable road and set along the banks of the narrow stream.Later, the car was pulled out from the stream by using rope after daylight.(UNI)
