Six killed, five injured in container-jeep collision in Bhiwandi
The container, which was travelling from Nashik to Mumbai, hit the jeep head-on and dragged it for around 100 feet after the collision. The horrific accident was captured on CCTV and went viral on social media platforms.
BHIWANDI: In a horrific accident on early Tuesday morning, six people were killed and five others suffered serious injuries after a container truck carrying onions hit their passenger jeep at Bhiwandi’s Khadavli naka on the Mumbai-Nashik highway. The 11 passengers were en route to Khadavli railway station from Padgha village.
Passersby and bystanders rescued the passengers trapped under the jeep and rushed them to the Padgha primary health centre. Five were declared brought dead while six were referred to another hospital. One of the latter, Chinmayi Shinde, died during the treatment. Police sources said the condition of the jeep driver was serious, and he had been referred to Sion Hospital for further treatment.
The deceased have been identified as Chinmayi Vikas Shinde, 15, Riya Kishor Pardeshi, Chaitali Sushant Pimple, 27, Santosh Anant Jadhav, 50, Vasant Dhavan Jadhav and Prajwal Shankar Firke. The injured are Dilip Kumar Vishwakarma, 29, Chaitnya Ganesh Jere, 19, Kunal Gyaneshawar Bhamare, 22, Janhavi Sanjay Walanj and the driver Javed Abdul Shaikh.
According to the police, the container, which was travelling from Nashik to Mumbai, hit the jeep head-on and dragged it for around 100 feet after the collision. The horrific accident was captured on CCTV and went viral on social media platforms.
Sanjay Sable, senior police inspector, Padgha police station, said that the driver of the container lost control of the heavily loaded vehicle due to incessant rains. The driver has been identified as Shivkumar Prajapati and arrested. A case was registered against him under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act.
Four of the 11 passengers were students travelling to Khadavli station to take a train to their respective colleges. Bus transportation from Padgha village is not available, a concern raised by Bhiwandi MLA Rais Shaikh in the vidhan sabha after the accident. The relatives of two of the injured persons reiterated this.
Akansha Ganesh Jere, elder sister of the injured Chaitna Jere, said that her sister was a second-year BCom student of Birla College in Kalyan. “She usually took an auto rickshaw to college but on Tuesday, unfortunately, she got a passenger jeep going to Khadavli railway station,” she said.
Manoj Bhamre, elder brother of the injured Kunal Bhamre, said, “My brother is pursuing architectural engineering in a Kharghar college. He used to take an auto but that day there were none available and so he took the jeep. My brother suffered a facial fracture and is in the ICU.”
Ajay Kumar Saroj, brother-in-law of the injured Dilip Saroj, said that he received information about the accident around 7.45 am. “Dilip’s nose and legs have been fractured,” he said. “He is in the ICU. He works at a petrol pump on the Mumbai-Nashik highway and used to go there early in the morning.”
Highway Blackspot?
This is the second major accident at the Khadavli intersection in the last 10 days. On July 9, 31-year-old Mozzam Ansari was killed and three others injured when a container vehicle rammed into a car and went on to crash into a parked ice-cream cart where the victims were eating falooda.
The agitated villagers around the Khadavli intersection had threatened to stage a protest over the lack of measures to curb accidents at the spot. However, the local police calmed them down and organised a meeting with the highway authorities to discuss the issue. “We discussed measures to curb the accidents and improve safety,” said Sable. “Khadavli phata has emerged as an accident-prone spot, and about 25 fatalities have been reported in a year.”
The accident also echoed in the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday afternoon. Bhiwandi MLA Rais Shaikh raised a question about the Padgha accident, saying this was the third accident on the Mumbai-Nashik highway in the last four months, and ten people had been killed. He raised the issue of bus services being unavailable to students living in Padgha, and also demanded an equipped trauma care centre at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital.
Bhausaheb Salunkhe, project director, National Highway Authority of India, said, “We had a meeting with the villagers regarding the accident spot. We assured them that a flyover will be constructed there. The proposal has been sanctioned and work will start very soon.”
