27 killed as lorry rams bus near Pune

At least 46 people were killed and 55 injured in several road accidents in three states, highlighting the lack of safety measures on the national highways of the country on Monday.

A lorry hurtling at high-speed in the wee hours of Monday slammed into a stationary bus crowded with a marriage party killing 27 people and injuring 26 others at Khalapur on Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
Local media said that the dead comprised 15 women, seven children and five men. The injured have been shifted to various hospitals in Panvel, Pune and Khalapur Chowk.

State police control room late on Monday evening said that while most of the injured have been treated and discharged, “15 of them were reportedly slightly critical and have been kept under observation.” According to police, the accident occurred on a winding stretch of the highway near Khalapur, 80 km away from Mumbai. The accident took place after one of the two mini-buses developed mechanical failure while on way to Yerwada in Pune after attending marriage of a girl from a slum colony in Mumbai north-east Ghatkopar suburb.

The cleaner and driver of the bus were trying to rectify the problem when around 1.00 am a speeding lorry crashed into their vehicle in which passengers were sleeping.

The lorry after ripping open the stationary bus, according to police, went spinning and mowed down some of the passengers who had got down from the bus to freshened up. Local media report from Raigad said that the impact was “so high that the seats were totally mangled and debris and luggage atop the bus were found strewn across the road.”

Police said that most of the deaths took place instantaneously; the survivors at Sassoon Hospital in Pune in a state of shock also confirmed.

One of the survivors Shubhangi Pathare with misty eyes said: “My brother and younger sister died on the spot. My mother was bleeding and I kept on administering her artificial respiration... desperately hoping she will survive. But she was already dead when we reached the hospital. My father Suresh Gaikwad is the only survivor in my maternal home in Nagpur Chawl in Yerwada.”

Police said that the driver of the lorry Sachin Padtale has been taken into custody.
     If one looks from the pan India perspective, the number of accidents decribes the prepardeness of the authorities to tackle situations like this.

TN crash kills 12

In Tamil Nadu, 12 people were killed and 24 injured when a mango-laden truck on which they were travelling turned turtle.

According to police, the lorry was carrying mangoes and 35 people, mainly daily wagers. It was proceeding towards Kaveripatnam when the driver lost control over the vehicle while negotiating a turn.

In two separate incidents, at least seven people were killed and eleven injured in West Bengal on Monday.