Navale Bridge accident: Truck driver turned off engine to save fuel, say police

A team of RTO officials, who visited the accident spot on Monday morning and examined the truck, said that they will submit the report to authorities on Tuesday

Investigation into the Navale Bridge accident on Sunday found that the truck driver had turned off the engine to save fuel and could not apply brakes when the heavy vehicle had gained speed and hit many vehicles, said the police citing a report compiled by the regional transport office (RTO).

Driver had turned off the engine to save fuel and could not apply brakes when the heavy vehicle had gained speed on the steep slope. (In pic) Oil patches on Navale Bridge. (Ravindra Joshi/HT PHOTO)

Vijay Magar, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), said that it is too early to reach a conclusion and ruled out brake failure as the reason for the accident.

“Team of RTO officers is probing the case and a detailed report will be out soon, but prima facie detail is that the truck driver had turned off the engine to save fuel and lost control of the vehicle.” Magar said.

A team of RTO officials, who visited the accident spot on Monday morning and examined the truck, said that they will submit the report to authorities on Tuesday.

On Sunday, at least 48 vehicles were damaged and more than 20 people suffered injuries in a multi-vehicle accident at around 8:30 pm on the National Highway – 4, near Navale Bridge in Pune. The crash took place when the driver of the speeding truck lost control of the vehicle resulting in a multiple-vehicler pile-up. Shortly after the incident, the driver of the truck fled the spot.

A case has been registered at Sinhgad Road police station against the truck driver Maniram Chotelal Yadav who hails from Madhya Pradesh under Sections 279, 337, 338, 427 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 119/177, 134, 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act.

Jayant Rajurkar, inspector (crime), Sinhgad Road police, said that police teams have been formed to nab the truck driver.

A team of senior police officials, including joint commissioner of police Sandip Karnik, deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Vijay Magar and his Zone 3 counterpart Suhail Sharma, along with RTO and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials visited the accident spot on Monday.

Member of Parliament (MP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule visited the accident spot on Monday morning and met officials. She said that the accident could have taken place due to the steep slope of the road.

“I have spoken to minister Nitin Gadkari to take steps to prevent accidents on this road. I had raised the issue of accidents on this stretch in the Parliament several times following which authorities took several road safety steps. Still, more needs to be done to reduce accidents on this road,” Sule said.