Five members of the same family, who had started from Solapur on Sunday night and were on their way to Pune, died in the accident. (Express photo)In three separate accidents that took place within the span of a few hours on a 30-km stretch of the Pune-Solapur Highway, eight persons were killed and three more injured from Sunday night till the early hours of Monday.
One of the accidents took place around 3.30 am near Kasurdi village, nearly 50 km from Pune city, when a car rammed a container truck which had halted on the highway. Five members of the same family, who had started from Solapur on Sunday night and were on their way to Pune, died in the accident.
“Preliminary probe suggests that the container truck suddenly came to a halt midway. The driver of the car could not control the vehicle and rammed the truck from the rear at a high speed. The impact was such that all the five passengers in the car were killed on the spot. We have booked the driver of the container truck,” said Assistant Inspector Dhananjay Kapare of Yawat police station.
Police have identified the deceased as Shobha Sharangoda Patil (38), her sister Anita Barde (40), Anita’s husband Siddheshwar (50), Anita and Siddheshwar’s daughter Shweta (23), all residents of Pune, and their relative Santosh Mallinath Patil (38), a resident of Bhosari.
In another accident that took place on the intervening midnight of Sunday and Monday, two persons were killed and four were injured after the driver of a gas tanker truck lost control of the vehicle, which crossed over to the opposite corridor and collided with two cars.
Police said two persons were killed and four sustained injuries, and all of them were passengers of the two cars. One of the deceased has been identified as Kashinath Bandichode and two of the injured as Ranuka Pujari and Channappa Pujari. Police have launched a search for the driver of the container.
Initial investigation revealed that the driver of the container may have lost control due to a pothole on the road. The accident took place near Sahajgaon village.
In a third accident that took place some time in the early hours of Monday, a middle-aged pedestrian was hit by an unidentified vehicle near Wakhari village. Police said they have launched a probe to identify the vehicle.
Inspector Bhausaheb Patil, in-charge of Yawat police station, said, “These accidents have taken place within five to six hours of each other, on a 30-km stretch of the Pune-Solapur highway. Probe is being conducted into each one of the cases separately.”
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