Pune accident: Sight of cousin in mangled vehicle shocks Yavat man

PUNE: Yavat’s Mohammed Ali got the shock of his life early in the morning on Saturday when he went to rescue the passengers in the mangled multi-utility vehicle (MUV) on Pune-Solapur highway. He found his cousin trapped inside the vehicle.

Ali was returning home from Pune in a car with his friend. He was caught in the traffic jam because of the accident.
“I decided to help the victims. At that time, I didn’t know who all were trapped inside the mangled vehicle. I rushed to the spot and was shocked to see my cousin, Noormohammed, lying unconscious inside,” he told TOI.
Noormohammed Abbas Daya alias Sonu (21) was one of the nine students killed in the accident in the early hours of Saturday while returning from Raigad.
The nine students had stopped at the accident spot — Kadamwak Vasti — on Friday while they were on their way to Raigad fort to click a selfie. They had posted the picture on social media.
Sameer Sayyed, a local social worker and a family friend of one of deceased students, Zubair Azij Mulani (21), told TOI, “The students, who were schoolmates from Standard I, left Yavat on Friday morning. When they reached the Pune-Solapur highway, they took a selfie at the same spot, where the accident occurred on Saturday.”
He said the students’ group kept clicking photographs wherever they halted. “They even uploaded some of them on social media sites,” he said.
The childhood friends were pursuing higher studies at different colleges in Yavat, Hadapsar and Pune. They died after their MUV, Ertiga, collided head-on with a truck on Pune-Solapur highway during the early hours of Saturday.
Sachin Yadav, the cousin of another car crash victim Hrishikesh Ganesh Yadav, said, “Hrishikesh was a hardworking boy. He was pursuing his second year of engineering degree in a college at Camp in Pune.”
He said Hrishikesh’s mother was a kindergarten teacher at a school in Yavat. The father of Hrishikesh is an electrician.
“Hrishikesh’ family is from the economically weaker section. Hrishikesh always took up part-time jobs to support his family and studies,” Yadav said, confirming that the group of students had taken a photograph on Friday at the same spot where the accident occurred in the early hours of Saturday.
A few hours later
Another accident occurred near the spot where the car crashed into the truck on Saturday.
Around two hours after the car tragedy, two men in a pickup van were injured when their vehicle rammed a container truck near HPCL Company on Pune-Solapur highway at Loni Kalbhor.
The pickup van was carrying flowers. After the accident, the flowers were strewn on the road.