18 killed, 14 injured after truck hits barricade on Pune-Satara highway

At least 18 people were killed and 14 others injured after a truck packed with labourers and heavy equipment hit a barricade and overturned on the Pune-Satara highway in Maharashtra early Tuesday morning, the police said.

The deceased, mostly construction workers from Bijapur district in Karnataka, were heading to Pune from Satara when the truck crashed around 4:30 am.

The injured have been admitted to the civil hospital in Satara. The condition of three of the injured labourers was reported to be critical, a police official said.

“At the turn on the spot, there is a slope. I suspect the driver lost control and drove into the safety wall along the slope. The tempo fell some 8-10 feet off the road,” said assistant police inspector Randive of Bhuins police station under Satara police jurisdiction.

There are no eyewitnesses and there are no surveillance cameras on the stretch of the highway where the accident occurred.

“We will speak to the survivors who are in a state of trauma at the moment. We will verify the driver’s behaviour. But it is quite apparent that had the driver made even a little bit of attempt to prevent the collision, he could have prevented the loss of life. The safety wall could have prevented the tempo from turning,” said Amol Tambe, superintendent of police, Highway Safety Patrol.

The bodies were sent for post-mortem, the police added.