2 dead, 1 injured as truck rams auto into bus on EEH; 1 booked

The truck driver fled from the spot, leaving his vehicle behind

An auto rickshaw driver and a male passenger were killed while another woman passenger was injured on Sunday night, after a cement mixer truck collided against the three-wheeler, propelling it into a bus on the Eastern Express Highway at Chembur.

The auto rickshaw was crushed between the cement truck and the bus on the EEH. (HT PHOTO)

The Tilak Nagar police suspect the accused truck driver was speeding, despite the first showers making the roads slippery.

Subhash Santprasad Bind, 45, was driving passengers Mohamed Ansari, 25, and Mona Mirza, 55, to Kamraj Nagar in Ghatkopar, when the accident occurred. At 11pm, as they were plying on the Amar Mahal flyover, on the northbound stretch of the EEH, the accused’s truck crashed into the auto rickshaw and forced it to careen into a bus. The force of the impact left the vehicle sandwiched between the bus and the truck.

The truck driver fled from the spot, leaving his vehicle behind. Tilak Nagar police reached the spot and rushed the auto driver and the two passengers to a nearby hospital. “Bind was declared dead on arrival at the hospital, while Ansari succumbed to his injuries during treatment. Mirza sustained injuries and was in pain. We are yet to record her statement for more details about the accident,” said a police officer.

The police have registered a case against the dumper truck driver under sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 184 (driving dangerously) of the Motor Vehicles Act.

“It was just three years ago that Subhash’s son passed away and our family has to deal with this,” said Bind’s younger brother, Lalji, as he waited outside the mortuary of Rajawadi Hospital, to claim his brother’s body after the post-mortem.

The second deceased, Ansari, was heading back home to his wife and one-year-old daughter on Sunday night after visiting his brother in Dharavi on the weekend, when he was killed.