3 from Mumbai die, 6 hurt as speeding truck causes 6-vehicle e-way pile-up

PUNE: Three people were killed and six injured in a road accident that led to a pile-up of six vehicles near the Khopoli exit of the Pune-Mumbai expressway around 5.30am on Monday.
The Khopoli police said all the vehicles were headed to Mumbai from Pune.
Assistant inspector Rakesh Kadam of Khopoli police said the deceased were identified as Ronak Ghanashyam Mordani (28) from Khar, Irshad Ahmed Siddiqui (30) from Bandra (west) and Israr Ahmed Khan (40), an Antop Hill resident.
“Khan was driving a poultry truck. The documents and cellphones found in the car helped us establish contact with the victims’ families and identify them. The six injured persons were given first aid on the spot. They are all residents of Mumbai,” Kadam told TOI.
Mordani was employed with a private company in Mumbai, while Siddiqui was looking after a family business. “The two were good friends and were returning from Pune where they had gone for some personal work,” said Kadam.
Police said Khan, who was driving his poultry truck at a break-neck speed, lost control of the vehicle and hit a vegetable-laden tempo and then a car.
The poultry truck then veered off to the middle lane and collided with a slow-moving luxury bus.
At this moment, the car in which Siddiqui and Mordani were travelling crashed into the poultry truck from the rear and a trailer truck trailing the duo’s vehicle rammed it. The car was sandwiched between the two trucks. Khan died due to the impact of the crash after hitting the luxury bus.
Vehicular movement on the Mumbai corridor of the expressway remained affected for one-and-a-half hours. Heavy-duty cranes were summoned at the spot to move the wreckage of vehicles to the shoulder lane. Traffic resumed on the Mumbai corridor around 7am. Police later registered a case against the deceased truck driver for rash and negligent driving.
Rash driving on the expressway has always been a concern. “I have installed speed governors on all my vehicles. Many times, drivers fail to control the vehicles due to the high speed,” said Avinash Chavan. a Kothrud-based tour operator.