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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.
“Primary information suggests that a truck hit at least 48 vehicles, 23 of which were badly damaged, following a suspected brake failure. 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.
Inspector Jayant Rajurkar of Sinhagad Road Police station said, “Primary probe suggests that the truck had a brake failure but only further examination will confirm it. At least 15 persons had minor injuries and required administration of first aid. Six were seriously injured and required hospitalisation.”
Deputy Commissioner of Police Suhail Sharma said, “The truck came on a downward slope at high speed. Of the 24 vehicles damaged, 22 were cars while one was an autorickshaw. None of the six persons hospitalised have life threatening injuries.”
He added, “Road traffic was initially diverted but was later streamlined after removing the damaged vehicles and cleaning the oil spillage.”
On November 7, 12 persons were injured when a bus ramming into a container on the Katraj viaduct on Katraj-Dehu Road bypass of the Mumbai-Bangalore Highway in Pune led to a pile-up of at least six vehicles. The Navale Bridge, where the latest accident took place on Sunday, is also located on this bypass.
Several incidents of vehicle pile-ups have been reported on the Katraj-Dehu Road Bypass in the recent past. On October 16, five persons were injured after an MSRTC bus hit at least eight vehicles following a suspected brake failure near Pashan Sus area on the bypass.
Besides accidents, heavy traffic jams have been witnessed on a regular basis on various patches of the highway bypass road in the recent past. Officials have attributed these accidents and traffic jams to a number of factors such as multitude of road exits and entry points, absence of rumble strips and signage boards, potholes, lack of lane discipline and high speed driving among commuters, encroachment of service roads among others.
In the last week of August, a convoy of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde got stuck in a major traffic jam at Chandani Chowk located on the Katraj-Dehu Road Bypass after which various agencies, including the Pimpri Chinchwad police and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), expedited efforts to resolve the issue. On October 2, the 30-year-old bridge at Chandani Chowk was demolished to make way for the construction of a new bridge intended at providing solution to the problem.
In his tweet about the accident, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said,”After being informed about the accident, I have directed the concerned authorities to probe whose negligence caused the mishap. Local administration has been directed to ensure that all injured receive adequate medical aid and treatment. Traffic police have been instructed to ensure smooth flow of traffic in the area.”
