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Four youths killed, two injured in road accident on Pune-Satara highway
The accident took place around 1.10 am near Hotel Shivalay within the limits of Shirwal village in Khandala tehsil, police said
Four youths were killed and two others injured after the SUV they were travelling in lost control, hit a road divider, overturned and crossed into the opposite lane before colliding with a truck on the Pune-Satara carriageway of NH-48 near Shirwal in Satara district early Tuesday.
The accident took place around 1.10 am near Hotel Shivalay within the limits of Shirwal village in Khandala tehsil, police said.
The deceased were identified as Vedant Waringe, 19, from Talegaon Dabhade; Sonling Thakur, 19, from Kamshet; Aditya Garud, 19, from Takve; and Nikhil Raut, 20, from Kamshet. All four were from Pune district.
Shivaji Pawar, superintendent of police, Highway Safety Patrol, Pune, said, “According to preliminary information, a car was travelling from Pune towards Satara when its driver allegedly lost control of the vehicle. The car first rammed into the divider and overturned. It then crossed over into the opposite lane, where it collided with an Eicher truck.”
According to the complaint filed by Shivkumar Devangat, 36, a truck driver from Karnataka, he was driving the Eicher truck on the Satara-Pune carriageway when the car travelling towards Satara allegedly lost control near Hotel Shivalay.
M K Ingale, police inspector, Shirwal police station, said the car, allegedly driven by Mayur Shinde, 20, of Bahur in Kamshet, hit the divider and overturned three to four times before entering the opposite carriageway and crashing into the truck.
Shinde and another passenger, Dikshit Dayanand Pujari, 20, of Kamshet, were injured and shifted to a hospital.
“The impact caused serious injuries to the occupants of the car. Four of them succumbed to their injuries,” Ingale said.
Police said 13 youths were travelling towards Mahabaleshwar in two vehicles. Preliminary investigation indicates that the two vehicles were allegedly chasing each other when one of them lost control and crashed.
Blood samples of the injured were collected to determine whether alcohol consumption was a factor, police said.
Personnel from the Sarola Highway Police Assistance Centre and Shirwal police station rushed to the spot after being alerted and carried out rescue and traffic management operations. The damaged vehicles were removed using a crane and traffic on the Pune-Satara carriageway was subsequently restored.
The exact circumstances that led to the driver losing control are yet to be established. Shirwal police have registered a case against the Nexon driver under Sections 106(1), 281, 125(a), 125(b) and 324(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act. Assistant police inspector Khamgal is conducting the investigation.
