NAVI MUMBAI: A man jaywalking on
Mumbai-Pune Expressway died after he was run over by a state transport bus on Saturday morning. It was around 8.30am that the semi-luxury bus plying on the Borivli-Satara route hit the unidentified man who was scurrying on the expressway.
The driver tried to save the man, who the police said appears to be aged around 45, but he was knocked down and run over by the bus, said havaldar J P Pote of the state highway traffic patrol.
A private
Volvo bus that was right behind collided with the state bus, pushing the latter onto the hedge along the median that bifurcates the two carriageways. This happened near Rish village in Panvel. "Luckily, no passenger in either of the buses was hurt," said Pote
While the state bus had about 20 passengers on board the private bus belonging to Chirag Travels had a "few", but the number was not immediately known. A rescue activist, Gurunath Sathelkar, said that the driver of the Volvo bus was "seriously injured". "He was trapped in the bus for quite some time," he said.
Pote said that the driver of the Volvo bus, Mahendra Chauhan (50), who is originally from Rajasthan, was rushed to MGM Hospital in Kamothe. The pedestrian was also taken to the hospital where he was declared dead.
The driver of the state bus, Ravindra Jagadhali (33), has been booked, said assistant sub-inspector
Namdev Dhoke of Rasayani police station. While he has not been arrested, he has been told to report to the police station on Sunday. A police officer said that driver Jagadhali has claimed that the jaywalker was in the middle of the expressway.
The three lanes on the way to Pune had to be shut for vehicular traffic for 30 minutes until the state bus was brought out from the median. This led to a jam on the road to Pune with stranded vehicles stretching over a kilometre.
Representative image