Several incidents of vehicle pile-ups have been reported on the Katraj-Dehu Road Bypass in the recent past. (Express Photo By Pavan Khengre)Pune Truck Accident Highlights, November 22, 2022: The driver and cleaner of the truck that hit over 40 vehicles on Navale Bridge were arrested by a team from Sinhagad Road police station, late Monday night. Both were arrested from Nanekarwadi area in Chakan, Senior Inspector Shailesh Sankhe, in-charge of Sinhagad Road police station said. While no death was reported after the Narhe Bridge accident, the incident left around 13 people injured of which two were grievously injured.
A probe into the major accident on Pune’s Navale Bridge on Sunday night revealed that the truck which went on to hit several vehicles did not have a brake failure, but the driver had turned off the ignition to save fuel, the police said following an assessment by Regional Transport Office (RTO) officials Monday morning.
Two days after Sunday night’s accident on Navale Bridge on the Mumbai-Bangalore Highway in Pune, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has launched a massive drive to clear encroachments on the sides of the highway and service roads, officials said. The drive is being conducted amid heavy police presence, anticipating hostile reactions from local citizens, officials added. The drive comes after top officials of Pune city police, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the NHAI visited the accident-prone spots in the area and held meetings. The officials studied the Navale bridge and the adjacent selfie-point and proposed a slew of measures to improve safety on the bypass in Katraj and Narhe, which has seen a large number of accidents and fatalities in the past.
The accident on the Navale Bridge involved a pile-up after a truck hit at least 48 vehicles, 23 of which were badly damaged, following a suspected brake failure. (Express photo by Pavan Khengre)
A female traffic constable was molested and pushed to the ground and her male colleague was attacked by two men whom she stopped after they tried to force their way into a no-vehicle zone created for a pilgrimage in Pune’s Alandi town, police said, adding that they had been arrested.
The incident took place around 7pm on November 20, when the constable posted at a traffic police station in Pimpri Chinchwad and her male colleague were deployed at a junction in the temple town of Alandi for a pilgrimage at the Sant Dnyaneshwar Temple. Police arrested two suspects identified as Bhushan Jain (30) and Dattatray Kokare (26), both civil engineers from Alandi, according to officers. Read More
A sub-inspector posted with Pune’s Chatushrungi police has been suspended and two other officers have been transferred pending an inquiry into alleged dereliction of duty in responding to complaints of harassment by a 22-year-old woman who was recently murdered by her harasser, officers said.
Pune City Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta confirmed that suspension orders have been issued against sub-inspector Vaishali Sool, while an inquiry has also been instituted against the three officers. Senior inspector Rajkumar Waghchaware (in-charge of Chatushrungi police station) and sub-inspector Shamal Powar have been transferred.
Shweta Ranawade, 22, a resident of Siddharth Nagar area of Aundh, was attacked with a sharp weapon in the parking lot of her residential building around 2.30 pm on Wednesday, officials said, adding that the suspect Pratik Dhamale, 26, and the victim had had a heated argument prior to the attack. Read More
A large part of Pune city will not get water on Thursday due to urgent repair work undertaken by the state power utility on the supply to various water pumping stations of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
In a statement, the PMC informed that the power utility is taking up urgent repair work at Parvati substsation and the civic administration has planned for repair and maintenance at Parvati, Cantonment, SNDT and Vadgaon water works.
The areas that fall under these water works jurisdictions will not get water while Kothrud and Shivajinagar area will get water at low pressure. Read More
NHAI under protection of Police carried out a massive anti encroachment drive near Navale bridge area on Tuesday followed by the Sunday night’s accident on Bangalore highway where in 45 vehicles got hit. (Express Photos by Arul Horizon)
Twenty years ago, Nikhil Kapur, an ironman triathlete and sports nutritionist, realized that the pace of wealth creation in India had gained steam, and it was giving rise to chronic ailments, commonly referred to as rich man’s diseases that used to be witnessed in the West earlier. With wellness as his focus, the Fergusson College and Symbiosis Institute of Business Management graduate along with Sharmilee Agarwal Kapur founded a wellness centre near Pune on a lush Sahyadri mountain range overlooking Mulshi dam, and called it Atmantan Wellness Centre. Atmantan refers to ‘Atma’ (soul), ‘Mana’ (mind) and ‘Tann’ (body). The centre was formally opened on World Health Day, April 7, 2016. (Read More)
The traffic control branch of the Pune city police held a meeting Saturday and decided to deploy more officers at various junctions reporting traffic congestion. It also stressed on strict attendance of staff deployed on traffic duty and asked them to update their attendance on the ‘My Safe Pune’ app.
The brainchild of Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta, the app is designed for tracking the movements of the beat marshals at all police stations and recording various details, such as the spots they visit, along with the time of the visit during patrolling. The app has been helpful in effective patrolling and offers quick responses to people reporting crimes. (Read More)
The slow pace of long-term remedial measures at the accident spot near Pune’s Navale bridge – where a truck rammed into several vehicles on Sunday – continues to put the life of citizens at risk. At least six people were injured and 24 vehicles damaged in the accident, once again bringing focus on the stretch which is part of the Bangalore-Mumbai bypass. (Read More)
Phased reduction of heavy vehicles’ speed limit and dismantling of ‘selfie point’ are some of the key measures announced jointly by stakeholder agencies to improve road safety after the truck accident on the Navale bridge in Pune Sunday night.
On Monday afternoon, several senior officers of the Pune city police, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) visited the accident spot and examined various aspects. Later in the evening, a meeting of top officials from these agencies held deliberation and came out with a number of corrective measures to improve safety on the highly accident-prone patches on the Katraj-Dehu road bypass in Katraj and Narhe. (Read More)
Sunday’s accident on Navale Bridge has once again brought to light multiple issues related to traffic management, enforcement and infrastructure on the Katraj Dehu Road bypass of the Mumbai Bengaluru Highway in Pune to which no concrete solution seems to be in sight.
As many as 25 persons were injured when a truck hit at least 48 vehicles of which 24 were heavily damaged in Pune’s Navale Bridge area on Sunday night. (Read More)
THE commuters who survived the Navale bridge accident on Sunday recall a sudden powerful dash to their cars, giving them and their fellow passengers a strong jerk, and say that they could not figure out for a while where the jolt came from. Some of them even mistook it for a tremor.
One of them was 45-year-old Pandurang Bashinge, a cab driver, ferrying a family of four, including an infant, from Katraj to Mumbai after his car was booked through an online cab service. The couple and infant were seated in the rear seat while an elderly family member was in the front passenger seat when the accident took place. (Read More)
THE TWO neighbouring accident-prone ‘black spots’ in the Navale Bridge area reported 31 deaths from 108 accidents over the past five years, with the present year reporting a sharp drop in mishaps and fatalities due to various measures put in place, data shared by the Pune police showed.
According to the norms laid down by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and the Indian Road Congress, a stretch of 500 metres on which five or more accidents with fatalities or grievous injuries have taken place in three years is referred to as a ‘black spot’. (Read More)
IN A breakthrough, the Pune city police arrested the alleged mastermind behind several sextortion crimes in the country from a village in Rajasthan. The accused is involved in the case involving a 19-year-old from Pune, who died by suicide after being blackmailed by a “woman” with whom he came in contact through social media, police said.
The accused has been identified as Anwar Suban Khan (29), a resident of Gothri Guru village in Lachhmangarh taluka of Alwar district of Rajasthan. Similar to Jamtara village in Jharkhand, many youngsters from the village were found to have been trained in committing digital crimes like the online “sextortion” case in Pune, police said. (Read More)
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) held protests in Pune on Monday against the alleged “disparaging and insulting comments” made by Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi on the 17th-century warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji.
Speaking at a programme in Aurangabad on Saturday, Koshyari had said that Maharashtra had no lack of icons and if Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was an icon of the olden times, B R Ambedkar and Nitin Gadkari were icons of modern times. Opposition parties took strong objection to Koshyari’s statement comparing a BJP leader with the Maratha king.
At the protest held at the Savarkar memorial near Saras Baug corner, a young actor dressed as Koshyari was symbolically “manhandled” by NCP workers who tossed his cap in the air and tried to strip him by pulling his dhoti. The protesters also shouted slogans against Koshyari, the BJP and its spokesperson Sudhansu Trivedi. A video clip of Trivedi participating in a television debate on the Savarkar apology row had recently gone viral after the BJP leader said Shivaji had apologised to Aurangzeb several times. Read more
The driver of the truck, identified as Maniram Chhotelal Yadav who hails from Madhya Pradesh, remains at large. Yadav seems to have fled the spot of the accident immediately after the accident. As per officials, Yadav had turned off the ignition of the truck and applied neutral gear to save fuel. As the truck gatherered speed due to steep slope of the road, he could not apply brakes.
Pune City Police have been booked Yadav under Motor Vehicle Act and relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
Traffic DCP Vijay Kumar Magar, DCP Suhail Sharma, Joint CP Sandip Karnik, senior officials from NHAI and elected representatives from the area visited the accident spot. A meeting is scheduled at the Pune Police Commissioner's office at 4 pm.
The probe into the major accident on Pune’s Navale Bridge on Sunday night revealed that the truck which went on to hit several vehicles did not have a brake failure, the police said following an assessment by Regional Transport Office (RTO) officials Monday morning. The driver turned off the ignition on a downward gradient slope and drove on neutral gear to save fuel but could not apply brakes later, the police added.
The police have launched a search for the driver, identified as Maniram Chhotelal Yadav from Madhya Pradesh, who fled from the scene after the accident. They also booked him under provisions of Motor Vehicles Act and Indian Penal Code.
The accident took place around 8.30 pm on the Katraj-Dehu road bypass of the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway when the truck went out of the driver’s control and hit at least 48 vehicles, 24 of which were badly damaged. Around 20 persons were injured and six of them were hospitalised while others required administration of first aid. Read more
Supriya Sule said that the Sunday night's accident seems to have happened due to the steep slope of the road and it's important that the NHAI addresses this issue. "They must bring in technical experts and address the slope gradient," said Sule.
She said that at 1 pm, a team of officials from Pune Municipal Corporation, Pune Police Commissioner and NHAI officials will hold an inspection at the site and will prepare a note of future action. "I shall speak to Nitin Gadkari-ji again on the issue to ensure that this road becomes a 'Zero Accident' zone," said Sule.
Supriya Sule, who visited the Pune accident spot on Navale Bridge, said that an important intervention would be for Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to construct good service roads on both the sides of the highway.
Member Parliament Supriya Sule visited the accident spot at the Navale bridge a while ago and spoke with police officials who were present at the spot and inspected the vehicles.
She said that the high slope of the road was to blame for the accident and said that although 18-20 interventions were made by the National Highways Authority over the last year, a few important changes remains to be carried out to make the area a 'zero accidents' zone.
"I raised the issue of frequent accidents on this stretch in the parliament in 2021 and (Road Transport and Highways) Minister Nitin Gadkari-ji had intervened in the matter. Followin that, NHAI and traffic police had brought in several changes on the stretch and as a result the number of accidents have come down. We need to do a little more to ensure that no accidents happen here," said Sule.
At least six people were injured when a truck with suspected brake failure rammed into several other vehicles in Pune’s Navale Bridge area on Sunday night. As many as 24 vehicles, including the truck, were heavily damaged in the accident. The incident took place around 8.30 pm when the driver of the truck lost control on the vehicle down a slope and rammed into several other vehicles, including cars, bikes and other four-wheelers, police said.
' ... We deployed two rescue vans for the shifting of the injured to the hospital. Locals also helped in that effort…There was a lot of oil spillage from the damaged vehicles. We used foam to clean the roads,” said Fire Officer Sujit Patil of PMRDA fire brigade. Read more.
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