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Movie night, Lonavala drive to catch sunrise, then a big crash: What went wrong for 3 IIT-Bombay students
Police are reviewing CCTV footage to identify the container truck involved and are examining whether overspeeding or driver fatigue played a role in the crash.
A movie night in Mumbai followed by a spontaneous early-morning drive to watch the sunrise in Lonavala ended in tragedy for three IIT-Bombay students, who were killed in a crash on their way back on Thursday.
The students were found trapped inside the mangled wreckage of their car after it rammed into a container truck on the Mumbai–Pune Expressway around 8:35 am. Highway traffic police used cutters to pull them out before rushing them to MGM Hospital in Kamothe, where they were declared dead.
The accident was first reported by a bus driver. The students were travelling in a Volkswagen Polo, which crashed into the rear of the container truck while attempting to overtake it near the Bhatan tunnel on the expressway.
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FIR registered, CCTV footage monitored
The impact of the accident was so severe that the car flipped several times and was then reduced to a heap of twisted metal.
An FIR has been registered against an unidentified person based on a complaint filed by Hitesh Kumar Meena, another student travelling in a different car.
Police are reviewing CCTV footage to identify the container truck involved and are examining whether overspeeding or driver fatigue played a role in the crash.
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What happened near the Mumbai-Pune Expressway?
The three students were a part of six IIT-B students travelling in rented Volkswagen Polo. The group had spent the night watching a movie in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex before heading to Lonavala for a sunrise drive.
The crash occurred about 1.5 km after the Bhatan tunnel as they were returning to Mumbai.
Preliminary findings suggest the car, driven by Omkumar Nitin Borse, was in the middle lane and attempted to overtake a container truck in the slow lane when it hit the rear portion of the vehicle.
“It appears that during the process of overtaking, the car crashed into the rear portion of the container, leading to a severe impact, following which the vehicle toppled and rolled multiple times,” an officer said.
Who were the students?
The deceased students were identified as Omkumar Nitin Borse, 23, a resident of Malegaon; Shreyansh Naresh Sharma, 20, from Jaipur; and Lay Prashant Deshbhratar, 21, from Nagpur.
Omkumar Borse was a second-year aerospace engineering student known among friends for his interest in cricket and swimming and his active involvement on campus. He was the event co-ordinator of IIT Bombay’s entrepreneurship cell for more than two years and also served as a hostel secretary.
“He was passionate about aerospace and did internships in the same field,” said Borse’s friend and batchmate, who requested anonymity. “He used to push the boundaries of innovation and technology in the aerospace field.”
Shreyansh Sharma, a final-year mechanical engineering student, wanted to become an IAS officer after completing his BTech, his family said. “He was a brilliant child,” his father, Naresh Sharma, told HT. “He put so much effort into getting a rank at IIT Bombay. He was very active on the campus, too.”
Shreyansh was also the Institute Secretary of Hostel Affairs and passionate about sports and music, his father added.
Lay Deshbhratar, the third student, was a second-year physics student from Nagpur.
