4 of family among 8 killed as pick-up truck rams autorickshaw in Pune

“Five people travelling in the pick-up truck and three in the autorickshaw died in the accident. An investigation has been launched…Prima facie, an error on the part of the deceased pick-up truck driver led to the accident,” said Kandage.

The five occupants of the pick-up truck, including four of a family, were fatally injured and are believed to have died on the spot, said officials.

The deceased have been identified as Ganesh Maskare (30), a farmer and vegetable vendor who was driving the pick-up truck, his wife Komal (25), daughter Kavya (6) and Harshad (4), all residents of Madh village in Junnar taluka. Amol Mukunda Thoke (25), who worked for Maskare’s vegetable shop, also died in the accident.

“Probe has revealed that the Maskare family attended a wedding near Pimpalwandi village near Narayangaon town in Pune earlier in the day. Around the same time, Ganesh stocked his pick-up truck with vegetables from Narayangaon and Otur markets, to be sold at his shop the next day. Probe suggests that loading of the truck may have also contributed to the accident,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (Junnar division) Ravindra Chaudhari.
The three travelling in the autorickshaw and killed in the accident have been identified as Naresh Namdeo Diwate (66), a native of Chiplun in Ratnagiri who was living in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar, Makarand Madhukar Khire (54) and his son Samarth (16), who were from Kanjur Marg in Mumbai. Khire’s family hails from Koregaon area in Satara, said officials.

Police said Diwate was the one driving the autorickshaw when it met with the accident.

“After the accident, the driver of the truck, which the pick-up truck had hit, stopped some other vehicles passing on the highway and rushed all the injured persons to a nearby hospital, where all of them were pronounced dead on arrival,” said an officer from Otur police station.

Lata Phad, Superintendent of Police, Highway Safety Patrol (Pune division) said, “The spot on the Ahmednagar-Kalyan highway, where the accident took place, has a turn. While the turn is not very sharp, the highway corridors on both directions have only one lane each. There is no divider in between. So any vehicle taking the turn at a high speed has a risk of crossing over to the opposite lane. That is exactly what happened here.”

“We have written to the concerned officials from the NHAI and given them a list listing half a dozen corrective measures that should be implemented to make this stretch safer,” said Phad.

DSP Chaudhari further said, “Because this is a predominantly vegetable-producing region, a large number of pick up trucks transporting vegetables ply on this patch of the Ahmednagar Kalyan highway. It has been observed that many transporters load their vehicles beyond the permissible carrying capacity. Also to accommodate more crates of vegetable, some transporters increase the height of the carriage area of the pick-up truck. This makes the vehicles prone to imbalance at high speed.”