PUNE: At least 13 persons were injured, two of them critically, after a speeding truck whose brakes had failed hit 10 vehicles near Navale bridge on the busy Katraj-Dehu Road bypass around 11am on Monday.
Doctors at a nearby private hospital said most of the injured victims admitted there have sustained fractures on their legs, chest, face and head. A few need to be operated upon. Two of the injured men have been admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit with serious wounds on the head and chest.
The accident threw vehicular movement on the bypass out of gear for nearly 45 minutes, particularly traffic going towards Mumbai. More manpower was summoned and normal traffic flow was restored after the truck and the damaged vehicles were shifted out. The
Sinhagad Road police later arrested the truck driver N Ravi Nagen (45) of Vellore in Tamil Nadu for rash and negligent driving.
The truck hit four cars, two autorickshaws, two scooters, a tempo and another truck. The tempo, which was carrying passengers, jumped the road median and went to the other side of the highway due to the impact.
Senior inspector Sardar Patil of the Sinhagad Road police station said a few more people suffered minor injuries but left the spot. Those admitted to hospital are Dharampal Ramasare Bharati (40), Parshuram Kallu Yadav (39), Prakash Gogawale, Dashrath Lingappa Bahire, Nimbraj Vasantrao Patil, Balaji Ahire, Vilas Maruti Chandewad, Rameez Naseeruddin Shaikh, Nandlal Mithailal Hajan, Audesh Dashrathlal Kumar, Babasaheb Shivnath Naikwade, Balu Shivram Bonde and an unknown woman.
Patil said the truck was heading towards Mumbai from Satara. “The truck driver could not control the loaded vehicle after its brakes failed on the slope of the Navale bridge. It first rammed into the tempo before hitting a six-seater autorickshaw, another autorickshaw, the cars and finally the scooters. It halted after ramming into another truck whose driver applied the brakes in a bid to slow down the offending truck,” he said.
Besides Patil, deputy commissioner of police Mangesh Shinde, assistant commissioner of police Bajirao Mohite, traffic police inspector Vivekanand Wakhare and other officials rushed to the spot.