E-Paper
Pune’s Dukkar Khind-Mutha stretch: Unsafe curve black spot for mishaps
Warje Malwadi police station records four accidents in past four months claiming four lives
The smell of fuel was thick in the air near one end of Warje service road on Thursday, a day after hundreds of litres of petrol and diesel spilled onto the road on Wednesday.
A major disaster was averted in Warje when an oil tanker containing 19,000 litres of diesel and 5,000 litres of petrol overturned near RM Dhariwal Sinhgad institute on Wednesday.
According to officials, the driver lost control of the wheels after the truck suffered a brake failure. The end of the bridge where the fuel container truck turned is curved in shape. The truck skid at the curve, broke through the thin tin barricade and fell towards its left side. The driver and the cleaner of the oil tanker survived minor injuries.
During the past years, the stretch between the Dukkar Khind and the Mutha riverbed has witnessed a high number of accidents. In a stretch between the Dukkar Khind and the Mutha riverbed, the Warje Malwadi police station has a record of four fatal accidents which claimed four lives, in the past four months. Also, six people were grievously injured in these accidents.
In 2018, 15 accidents were reported on the stretch which claimed 15 lives, according to the record keeper at the Warje Malwadi police station.
However, 28 accidents were reported in 2018, in the category in which accidents like the fuel container truck incident are reported and six incidents were reported in the past four months.
Meanwhile, as a result of the accident on Wednesday, a woman riding a two-wheeler slipped on the road and sustained minor injuries.
“The operation by fire brigade was over within two and a half hours, but what followed was cleaning the mess on the road caused by the mud we had sprinkled in order to absorb the fuel. The two-wheeler traffic had to be stopped for some time. After we had left for another assignment, another team was sent to the spot as people reported incidents of slipping on the same road,” said Gajanan Patrudkar, fire office, Kothrud fire station.
