`They all looked like sleeping beauties who would wake up any moment’

All the five girls, Yogini Patel (18), Jagruti Patel (20), Deepali Popat (20), Preeti Rathos (19), Beena Trivedi (18) and the middle-aged woman, Purviben Chitroda (37), accompanying them, all hailed from Mumbai.

Earlier, the girls were going together with more than 50 others to Dhule for a religious camp, organised by the Dadar-based Swaminarayan Sanstha. All of them died when the Tata Sumo, in which they were travelling, collided with a State Transport Corporation bus on the Aurangabad-Mumbai highway at Vaijapur in Aurangabad district, early on Friday morning. Along with the driver, Satish Chavan, the toll of the accident was seven.

Driver, Satish Chavan, was an expert behind the wheel and a trusted aide. However, his expertise proved to be insufficient in this case, as fate decided to intervene. Usha Darji (20) was a fortunate survivor of the mishap. Some people in the ST bus were also injured. Usha was admitted to the hospital and her condition is said to be stable. Purviben Chitroda (37) was the only older person travelling in the Sumo. The rest of the girls were all between 18 and 20 years of age.

The entire group of more than 50 youngsters was travelling in three Sumos and a bus. The ill-fated vehicle was left behind by the others on the highway. Before anyone knew its whereabouts, the fatal accident had already occurred. The ST bus was coming from the opposite direction and both vehicles had been travelling at a considerable speed, resulting in the terrible collision. So great had been the impact that driver Chavan died instantaneously and rescue workers had difficulty fishing out his body trapped in the debris.

While the religious camp, organised by the Akshar Purushottom Swaminarayan Sanstha, who have a large temple in Dadar, was to be held in Dhule, the group from Mumbai wanted to visit the Ajanta-Ellora caves before the camp and had hence taken a detour to Aurangabad.