Nashik accident: Toll climbs to 26, police say MSRTC bus was moving at ‘very high speed’

On Wednesday, Nashik Police (Rural) registered an FIR against the bus driver, who was also killed in the accident.

According to police, the state transport bus, with 46 passengers, was moving at a “very high speed” and had damaged the ring of the well, built of concrete and steel rings.

“The tyre marks and the fact that the bus, which was dragging an autorickshaw, managed to breach a concrete wall of a well located 30 feet from the road gives an impression that the vehicle was moving at a very high speed. We are still conducting our investigation and should know the exact reason in a week’s time,” an officer from Highway police said.

Of the 26 people who died in the incident, 12 each were men and women, while two children died due to injuries.

Cabinet Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and State Transport Minister and MSRTC chairman Anil Parab visited the relatives of the people killed in the accident and assured a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the next kin. As a special case, family members of the eight autorickshaw passengers killed in the accident will also be given Rs 2 lakh each.

Meanwhile, the Nashik Police (Rural) is planning to write to the Highway police, seeking to identify the accident site as a “black spot”.

Under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway, a spot which sees five fatal accidents that leads to five deaths in consecutive years or an accident where more than 10 people die can be termed a ‘black spot’. Once an area is termed a ‘black spot’, there is a joint survey by the RTO, state traffic police and other local authorities to check if there was any engineering issue that led to the accidents and the same is rectified.

“I will be writing to the highway police seeking the spot be declared a ‘black spot’. The spot has a steep turn due to which the bus driver was not able to see the oncoming autorickshaw, which led to the accident,” Superintendent of Police Nashik (Rural), Arti Singh said.

However, a Highway police official said that while as per guidelines the accident site could be called a ‘black spot’, “but as per our investigation, it appears that it was more a human error in the form of the driver over-speeding and less of an engineering issue. It was an internal road that does not see a lot of traffic due to which buses generally tend to speed”.