4 dead, 16 hurt in Nashik-Mumbai private bus mishap

NASHIK: Four passengers were killed and 16 injured, some of them seriously, as a Mumbai-bound private bus from Nashik overturned after hitting the divider on the Agra-Mumbai national highway on Saturday.

The deceased were yet to be identified by the police. The bus with about 30 passengers turned turtle near the Deshmukh Phata, Padali village, at Ghoti in the district at 5.45 pm, said the police.

Two passengers, including a six-year-old boy and a middle-aged man, died on the spot and two succumbed to their injuries at the Nashik Civil Hospital.

The bus driver fled the spot. The condition of some of the injured was said to be critical.

"Our initial finding is that the bus was moving at high speed," Nashik division highway police inspector Subash Pawar, who reached the spot after the accident, said. "The driver was trying to overtake a van near Padali when he lost control over the bus and hit the road divider and turned turtle."