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Delayed response, help came an hour late, says Vinayak Mete’s driver
Shiv Sangram Party head Vinayak Mete, 52, lost his life on Sunday morning as his SUV car met with an accident on the Pune-Mumbai express highway
Shiv Sangram Party head Vinayak Mete, 52, lost his life on Sunday morning as his SUV car met with an accident on the Pune-Mumbai express highway. Mete was grievously injured and so was his bodyguard, Ram Dogale, while his driver, Eknath Kadam, suffered minor injuries. Mete had started his journey from Beed on Saturday night and was headed to Mumbai for an important meeting with chief minister Eknath Shinde over the Maratha community reservation issue.
Kadam reportedly said that they got a late response from the authorities on the highway which caused the ambulance to reach the spot nearly an hour late. No sooner the ambulance reached the spot than Mete and Dogale were both taken to MGM (Mahatma Gandhi Mission) hospital in Kamothe, Panvel, where, after checking, doctors declared Mete as ‘brought dead’. Whereas Dogale is still undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Recalling the mishap, Kadam said, “We were travelling from Beed to Mumbai when early in the morning, a speeding heavy vehicle truck crossed us due to which our vehicle was dragged forward. The accident took place at around 5 to 5.15 am and as both of them (Mete and Dogale) were seriously injured, I got out of the car and was trying to get help. Till 6 am, we did not receive any kind of help except for a small tempo, the driver of which stopped to help me. I was trying to call the police helpline number 100 but I could not connect so I was trying to get help from the passing vehicles. Finally after 6 am, an ambulance reached the spot to help us.”
About the delayed response, Sunita Salunkhe Thakare, highway superintendent of police (HSP), Mumbai, said, “We have taken down the statement of the driver and he told us that they received medical help one-and-a-half hour after the accident took place. The HSP police came to know about the accident at 5.56 am when our control room at Pune got a call from Chandrakant Patil. Within a few minutes of being informed about the accident, our rescue vans reached the spot for help at 5.58 am. The three of them – Mete, his driver Kadam and his bodyguard Dogale – were rushed to the MGM hospital.”
While Raigad district superintendent of police, Ashok Dudhe, said, “Our police department is in the process of filing an FIR in Mete’s accident case which took place on Sunday morning on the express highway. We have formed teams to investigate all angles, including the allegations levelled by Mete’s driver about the delayed response to the accident. Whereas the search for the heavy vehicle truck is underway where the CCTV footage that we have got and all other technical things are being probed.”
Activist Tanmay Pendse, who has been working for the safety of people using the e-way for the past several years, said, “It is a very unfortunate thing to happen today as Mete along with his driver and bodyguard met with an accident on the expressway in which Mete lost his life. For the last many years, we have been working to reduce accidents on the e-way and one of the major reasons is speeding by drivers. Also, response to accidents is much better than earlier and in today’s accident, it needs to be checked why there was a delay in response.”
“We have been demanding a separate trauma care centre on the e-way, especially the part headed from Pune towards Mumbai and this accident has once again highlighted the need for such an emergency centre. Though the MGM hospital is nearby, the existence of a trauma care hospital on the highway itself will raise chances of survival of accident victims. During the golden hour, every second is important and as much as it is the driver’s responsibility to drive safely, efficient surveillance on the e-way is equally important,” he said.
