Marauding highways claim 13 lives

The head-on collision involving a truck and a Maruti van killed six persons on the spot at Kikvi village near Bhor, about 50 kms from Pune on the Mumbai-Bangalore highway.

Six members of a family from Karad were killed and nine injured when their Tempo Trax rammed into a truck at Wakad village on the Katraj-Dehu Road Westerly Bypass of the same highway. The Patil family was heading for a marriage in Mumbai.

The jeep was virtually reduced to pulp due to the impact and the rescue operations became difficult as some of the victims were trapped in it.

Both the mishaps had been apparently caused due to the dangerous overtaking, State highway police inspector Surendra Deshpandesaid.

The nine injured have been admitted to the Sassoon hospital. "We were in a happy mood as we were heading for a wedding of my niece in Mumbai. But, fate was against us as I lost half of my family," wailed Pandurang Patil. His brother Vasant Patil, who was also injured, recalled that nobody had a chance to escape as all the occupants of the Tempo Trax were fast asleep at the time of the accident.

The other mishap at Kikvi village, about 50 km from Pune on the same highway, claimed the lives of six persons, including four of a family. The members of Jaisingh Patole’s family were proceeding towards Mundruk Kole village in Patan taluka, Satara, to attend a function when their Maruti van rammed into a truck in a bid to overtake two other trucks.

All the six passengers of the van died on the spot as the vehicle went completely under the truck and was badly mangled leaving no survival chance. This is the second fatal accident at the same spot, about one and a half km from the Rajgad Cooperative SugarFactory, in this year. A sharp bend in the road affects the visibility of the vehicles coming from the opposite side.