Maharashtra: 12 dead, 23 injured as mini-bus hits container on Samruddhi Expressway

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At least 12 people were killed and 23 others injured when a speeding mini-bus hit a container in the wee hours of Sunday on Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district.

PTI reported that 35 passengers were traveling in the bus.

Quoting officials, the report said the accident took place at around 12.30 a.m. in Vaijapur area of the expressway in the district, located nearly 350 km from Mumbai, he said. The bus driver lost control of the wheels. As a result, the bus hit the container from the rear side, the official said.

According to initial reports, all of those traveling in the vehicle are said to be residents of Nashik district in Maharashtra and were heading to Sailani Baba for darshan.

Prima facie, the mini-bus was overloaded, news agency PTI reported. It had the capacity to carry 17 people, but nearly 35 passengers were traveling on it, an official from Vaijapur police station told PTI. Twelve passengers were killed. The deceased include five men, six women and a minor girl, inspector Shyamsundar Kavthale from Vaijapur police station said.

A control room of the Samruddhi Expressway received a call about the accident through the RTO at 12:07 a.m. An assistance team and ambulance reached the location in a few minutes, an official from the Samruddhi Expressway control room told PTI.

Also read: Buldhana road tragedy: Road hypnosis one of the causes of accidents on Samruddhi Expressway

The bus driver claimed he saw the truck in front of his vehicle suddenly before the accident. The truck driver has been detained, he said.

Some locals alerted the police about the accident.

"The accident took place on the first lane from the crash barrier side where the vehicles are supposed to move at a speed of 80 km per hour. The mini-bus collided with the truck on the first lane from the road shoulder. We had to cut a part of the mini-bus from the driver's side to bring people out of the vehicle," an official from the expressway control room said.

The deceased have been identified as Tanushri Solse (5), Sangeeta Aswale (40), Panjabi Jagtap (38), Kajal Solse (32), Rajani Tapase (32), Hausabai Shirsat (70), Zumbar Gangurde (58), Amol Gangurde (18), Sarika Gangurde (40), Milind Pagare (50), Deepak Kekane (47), all from Nashik, and Ratan Jamdade (45) from Vaijapur in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, the police said.

On July 1, 2023, 25 people were charred to death on the highway after a private bus caught fire after colliding with a road divider.

These accidents have been occurring since the expressway was partially opened in December last year.

A report then said road hypnosis, a condition where drivers zone out and have no recollection of what occurred during that time, has been identified as one of the causes of these accidents.

Since December, there have been 39 fatal accidents and a total of 616 minor and major accidents on the Nagpur-Mumbai expressway, resulting in 656 injuries.

Over-speeding, drivers falling asleep at the wheel, and tire bursts are among the primary reasons for these accidents. The highway police are working to address the issue of road hypnosis.

In Maharashtra as a whole, a staggering 15,224 people lost their lives in road crashes in 2022. The recent tragic incident on Saturday resulted in 25 passengers being charred to death after the private bus they were traveling in collided with the divider and caught fire in Buldhana district.

Currently, the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg is operational on a 601-kilometer stretch from Vidarbha's largest city to Bharvir in Nashik, spanning a total of 701 kilometers. (With inputs from PTI)