Five killed, 14 injured as bus rams truck on Pune-Aurangabad road

PUNE: Five people, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed and 14 others injured early on Monday morning when a speeding private bus going from Aurangabad to Pune rammed a truck.
The accident took place around 5.30 am at Wadegavhan, some 160 km from here, within the limits of the Supa police station of neighbouring Ahmednagar district.
Rescue operations by the ambulance service and the area police lasted for a couple of hours.Traffic movement on the highway, one of the busiest in the state, was also affected.
The deceased have been identified as the Mohammed Amjad Yusuf Shaikh (45) from Jalna, the driver; Pramod Uttam More (42) of Buldhana and Shaikh Altaf Abubakar (40) and his 12-year-old son Zameer, both from Aurangabad. The identity of one the deceased, a 40-year-old male, has still to be established.
The police say the private bus was speeding and rammed into a truck which was carrying iron rods and was also heading towards Pune.
Supa police station's inspector Rajendra Bhosle told TOI, "A preliminary investigation into the accident has revealed that the truck was in the left lane and was moving comparatively slowly when the private bus hit it."
The impact of the crash was so powerful that several tonnes of iron rods, which were in the truck, were thrown into a roadside farm. The bus overturned before coming to a halt.
One of the injured persons is critical and has been shifted to a Pune-based hospital.
The Supa police have registered a case of death caused by negligence and rash and negligent driving.