Pune: Nine students killed as car collides head-on with truck

PUNE: Nine students died in the early hours of Saturday after the Ertiga multi-utility vehicle they were travelling in jumped the road median and collided head-on with a truck on Pune-Solapur highway at Kadamwak Vasti near Loni Kalbhor, about 23km from the city.
The multi-utility vehicle (MUV) veered off the road and went on the other side of the highway around 2.30am after its driver lost control over the wheel. It was heading towards Yavat, near Daund, from Pune.
Inspector Suraj Bandgar of the Loni Kalbhor police said, “It is not yet known who was driving the MUV. Prima facie it appears that the MUV was travelling at a high speed and the driver lost control over the vehicle. It smashed a few reflectors on the median before colliding head-on with the truck on the other side of the highway.”
He said, “The truck was heading towards Kondhwa in Pune from Solapur city. The truck driver and the cleaner ran away after the accident leaving the vehicle, fearing that the residents might beat them up.”
Police identified the deceased students as Shubham Ramdas Bhise (19) of Kasurdi village near Yavat, and Vishal Subhas Yadav (20), Nikhil Yashwant Wable (20), Akshay Chandrakant Dighe (20), Hrishikesh Ganesh Yadav (20), Akshay Bharat Waikar (22), Noormohammed Abbas Daya (21), Parvez Ashpaq Aatar (21), and Zubair Azij Mulani (21), all residents of Yavat.
Bandgar said the MUV mangled in the accident and all its occupants were trapped inside. “A heavy-duty cutter was summoned to the spot and the car was cut into pieces to rescue the trapped passengers,” he said.
The residents of the area and policemen rushed the injured passengers to a nearby hospital, where they were declared dead.
Bandgar said the group of students had gone on a monsoon picnic to Raigad and were returning to Yavat. They reached Pune around midnight via Tamhini ghat and told their parents over phone that thy would be at their respective homes in two to three hours.
“We shall file a case against the MUV driver for rash and negligent driving after establishing who was at the wheel and how the accident occurred.”
The family members and friends of the victims stated that the deceased students had borrowed the MUV from one of their friends. Its owner did not accompany them.
The Yavat village sarpanch, Imran Tamboli, said all the students belonged to poor families. Social worker Sameer Sayyad said among the deceased students, Hrishikesh, Akshay and Shubham were the only children of their parents.