6 killed in smash-up

PUNE, Nov 16: Tragedy struck in the early hours of Monday. All six persons died on the spot when their jeep rammed into a luxury bus on Katr...

PUNE, Nov 16: Tragedy struck in the early hours of Monday. All six persons died on the spot when their jeep rammed into a luxury bus on Katraj-Dehu Road bypass near Shiv Chhattrapati sports complex Balewadi. The dead included a pregnant woman.

According to the police, the accident occurred between 4.30 and 4.45 a.m. Kamalakar Ganpatrao Ghorpade, driving an Armada recklessly rammed into the inner left side of the bus.The six died on the spot. The jeep was heading to Satara from Mumbai.

The dead include Bapu Dattatraya Raut (24) and his wife Kalpana Dattatraya Raut (20) both residents of Vashi, Ankush Jayram Barkade (30), resident of Navi Mumbai and Bhanudas Raghunath Mulik (33) resident of Sangli. One of them could not be identified.

Six persons travelling by the bus also sustained injuries and were immediately moved to various hospitals. Of these, the condition of Shirish Ramnilal Shah (61) of Mumbai, admitted to Ruby Hall Clinic, is critical. That the jeep was travelling at a very high speed could be gauged by the impact of the collision. It was completely mangled and the bus turned turtle. The police reached the spot around 5 a.m. They had to extricate the bodies of the passengers in the jeep. The bus belonged to Pai Transport from Belgaum. It was carrying 27 passengers and left Mumbai at about 8.30 p.m on Sunday. The passengers had a brief halt at Shivapur at 3 a.m. on Monday. The bus proceeded from the Katraj-Dehu Road bypass and collided with the jeep at Balewadi.