A woman was killed and 19 persons were injured after a bus operated by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) met with an accident in the ghats near Saptashrungi Fort in the Nashik district on Wednesday. In another mishap in the state, around 22 passengers were injured, including four seriously, after the private luxury bus they were traveling in hit a trailer truck on the Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district in the early hours of Wednesday.
This is the second major accident on Samruddhi Expressway within two weeks after 25 people were killed in a horrific accident near Buldhana.
Bus Accident In Nashik
As per local media reports, the MSRTC bus in Nashik was carrying approximately 35 people at the time of the accident. The incident took place around 5.45 am near a Ganesh temple at Vani on the Saptashrungi Garh ghat section in Kalwan taluka, the official said.
The injured persons, including the driver, have been admitted to a state-run hospital. Some of the injured passengers include Disha Vajrani (51), Anjali Jumare (43), Atul Jumare (41), Bhavesh Vajrani (25), and Shaikh Yunus (34).
On Tuesday night, the MSRTC bus had come to Saptashrungi Garh from Khamgaon in the Buldhana district. The bus was going back on Wednesday morning when the driver lost control of the vehicle and it fell into a 150-foot-deep gorge, the official said.
Local residents, police, and other agencies reached the spot and started rescue and search operations, he said.
A woman died and 19 persons, including the driver and conductor of the bus, sustained injuries in the accident, he said.
Sources said district guardian minister Dada Bhuse was on his way to the accident spot.
Accident on Samruddhi Expressway
The incident on the Mumbai-Nagpur high-speed carriageway took place near Phulambri in the district around 2.30 am, an official said.
The private bus was going from Nagpur to Pune, while the trailer truck carrying steel was on its way from Jalna to Surat, he said.
The driver of the bus lost control of the vehicle and rammed it into the rear side of the trailer truck. At least 22 passengers on the bus sustained injuries, he said.
Among the injured, four are in serious condition and undergoing treatment at a private hospital. The rest were taken to a state-run hospital in Aurangabad city, he said.
The accident comes days after 25 passengers were charred to death when a private bus they were traveling in caught fire after hitting a divider on the Samruddhi Expressway in eastern Maharashtra’s Buldhana district.
(With PTI Inputs)