18 workers killed, 20 injured as truck overturns near Satara

PUNE: At least 18 construction labourers, including women and children, were killed and 20 others injured when a tempo carrying them crashed into a concrete barrier and overturned at the dangerous 'S’ shaped road near Khandala tunnel, about 70km from here in neighbouring Satara district on the Pune-Bengaluru National Highway around 5.30 am on Tuesday.
All the victims hail from Tikoti in Bijapur district of Karnataka and were on way to the Shirwal industrial estate near Pune for working at a construction site.
The speeding tempo was negotiating a sharp turn on the road when its driver lost control and the heavy vehicle crashed into a 6-ft high road side barrier before it overturned, police said. The victims, who were seated in the rear carriage, bore the brunt and some of them were thrown outside the vehicle. The impact left 18 persons dead on the spot.
The deceased included eight women and five children besides, the tempo driver, police said. The condition of some of the injured victims who were moved to the Khandala rural hospital was reported as critical.

A couple of two-wheeler riders, who belonged to the same group of workers and were following the tempo, alerted the police about the accident. Senior officials from Satara superintendent of police Sandip Patil, assistant superintendent of police Vijay Pawar and Khandala police inspector Yuvaraj Hande, rushed to the site.
The Khandala tunnel was built through the Khambatki mountain pass for separating two-way vehicular movement on the Pune-Kolhapur stretch which is part of the National Highway 4 that goes to Bengaluru. It is used by traffic heading from Kolhapur to Pune. The entire stretch is controlled and maintained by the National Highways Authority of India.
Vehicles emerging from the tunnel have to negotiate a dangerous `S’ shaped road which has a steep gradient and this has been a cause of frequent accidents. Often, vehicle users fail to anticipate the sharp turn soon after emerging from the tunnel and end up losing control over the wheels. Road safety experts have often raised their concern over the faulty design of the `S’ shaped road and have repeatedly sought corrective measures to curb accidents.