Jammu, Aug 3 : At least two persons were killed and three others injured on Sunday in a road accident in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district.

Officials said that the accident happened after a vehicle they were travelling in skidded off the road on the Kathua-Basohli road near Kainta Morh (Dakhnaka).

'The accident took place around 12.40 a.m. when the driver of the car lost control and the vehicle skidded off the road and crashed. A police team from Basantpur rushed to the spot, rescued the occupants and then shifted them to the Government Medical College (GMC), Kathua," said officials.

Doctors at GMC declared two of the injured, Mohinder Paul and Pawan Madhan, as brought dead. Three other injured persons, residents of Ferozepur in Punjab, are undergoing treatment. Police have taken cognisance of the accident, the officials said.

In hilly areas of Jammu and Kashmir, rash and negligent driving, overspeeding, overloading and bumpy roads are described by the traffic department officials as the main reasons for accidents.

Special squads to check traffic offences have been deployed in hilly areas. Regional Transport officers of Kashmir and Jammu divisions have publicised rules to acquaint vehicle owners and drivers of the various punitive actions prescribed for violators. These include cancellation of driving licences and vehicle registrations in case of gross violations and imprisonment of parents allowing their minor children to drive vehicles, thereby risking the lives of their wards as well as the general public.

Two-wheeler drivers and those riding pillion must wear helmets, and filling stations have been instructed not to sell fuel to two-wheeler drivers reporting at the filling stations without wearing helmets. As a goodwill gesture, traffic department officials in Jammu and Srinagar cities have been giving crash helmets to two-wheeler drivers after counselling them about the dangers of driving without helmets.

Statistics indicate that 90 per cent of deaths in two-wheeler accidents occur because of head injuries, and these can be prevented by wearing crash helmets with standardised specifications.

/IANS