Pune: Three killed, 18 injured in seven accidents within six hours on Katraj-Dehu Road bypass

PUNE: Three persons were killed and 18 others were injured, one of them critically, in seven accidents occurring within a span of six hours since 4.30am on Monday on the busy Katraj-Dehu Road bypass.
Six of these accidents occurred at different spots within a one-km stretch of each other along the approach route to Bhumkar bridge at Narhe. The seventh accident occurred near the Kiwale bridge, which is 29km from Bhumkar bridge towards the Dehu Road end of the 40-km long bypass linking the Mumbai and Bengaluru highways.
The first accident occurred around 4.30am when a speeding truck rammed a slow-moving truck at Narhe. Two persons died in the accident. “We suspect the driver of the truck that was speeding might have dozed off,” senior inspector Devidas Gheware of the Sinhagad road police said. “Both trucks were coming from Satara and headed for Mumbai,” the officer added.
Police identified the deceased as Raju Mujalade and Ajay Mujalade and the injured man as Anil Chavan. All of them were from Madhya Pradesh and were travelling in the driver’s cabin of the speeding truck that was reduced to a mangled structure. In fact, the victims were stuck in the damaged cabin for quite some time. The fire brigade personnel had to be summoned to extricate them, the police said. Chavan was admitted to a nearby private hospital.
The police said the slow-moving truck was carrying a consignment of alcohol bottles that were left strewn all over the accident site. People from Narhe and surrounding areas rushed to the spot. But instead of helping the victims, many people started fleeing with the alcohol bottles, the police said.
Around the same time, a private luxury bus carrying passengers from Udgir in Latur district to Mumbai crashed into a mini truck, which was moving from the side of the road on to the bypass near the Kiwale bridge. “Bajrang Gaikwad (40) of Latur, the second driver of the bus occupying the cleaner’s seat, took the brunt of the crash and died. Nine passengers and four occupants of the mini truck were injured,” assistant inspector Vishal Jadhav of the Ravet police told TOI. “Six of the injured persons are undergoing treatment at a hospital. Most passengers were from Latur,” he said.
Jadhav said, “The accident occurred due to speeding, as bus driver Jalil Sayyad (35), also of Latur, failed to anticipate the mini truck’s movement despite the latter showing the amber light to come onto the road. Sayyad lost control over the wheel and crashed into the mini truck. We have arrested Sayyad on the charge of rash and negligent driving.”
The accident spot is located just before the Kiwale bridge that also connects to the Pune-Mumbai expressway. A truck and a mini-truck had halted on the roadside for a tea break at a nearby eatery, Jadhav said. After having tea, the mini truck driver and two others boarded the vehicle and started moving on to the bypass. Due to the impact of the dash by the bus, the mini truck crashed into the rear of the stationary truck.
A little while later, a truck carrying heavy paper rolls crashed through the iron railings on Bhumkar bridge and fell on the service lane below, hitting an autorickshaw and a motorcycle rider.
The motorcyclist, whose identity could not be ascertained immediately, was removed to a nearby hospital in a critical condition. Three members of a family in the autorickshaw were injured. The autorickshaw driver survived unhurt.
The accidents disrupted traffic on the busy bypass for quite some time, as the police had to slow down vehicles near the accident spots. A crane had to be summoned at the service lane for removing the truck and the heavy paper rolls even as a sizeable crowd gathered around.
This was followed by four minor accidents, in which an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the Pune rural police was injured. His four-wheeler and an autorickshaw running parallel turned on their side after being hit by a container truck from rear. ASI Krishna Ramchandra Kadam, who was driving the vehicle belonging to the Rajgadh police, sustained injuries in head and leg.
In the other accident, a truck crashed into another truck from behind; another truck crashed into a roadside railing and a seven-seater SUV hit a truck on the bridge. No one was injured in these accidents.