Trailer loses control, crushes SUV after multi-vehicle crash on Mumbai-Pune expressway; 3 killed, 4 injured

NAVI MUMBAI: A container trailer transporting paint rammed into an SUV, a sedan and a cement tanker and then toppled over another SUV, crushing its three occupants to death, on the Mumbai-bound carriageway of Mumbai-Pune expressway near the Khopoli exit on Wednesday.

Four men in the other SUV and the trailer driver sustained severe injuries. The vehicle pile-up disrupted traffic for more than four hours. Police filed an FIR against the trailer driver.

Sachin Hire, senior inspector, Khopoli police, said the trailer driver, Awadesh Yadav (37), was headed for Navi Mumbai but lost control of the vehicle at a bend in Bhor ghat near Adoshi village.

The SUV on which the trailer overturned was completely mangled and its three occupants—Pune district residents Ambadas Petare (41), Shrikant Jadhav (63) and Pramod Pawar (27)—were taken to a civic hospital, where they were declared dead. They worked in the real estate/construction sector and were headed for a meeting in Panvel.

Assistant police inspector Manoj Thakare said the sedan's occupants had a lucky escape after it was thrust forward by the impact and only sustained a minor damage. Yadav and those in the other SUV—Pune residents Navnath Bhujbal (32), Akshay Gaikwad (31), Bhanudas Gaikwad (27), Swapnil Bhujbal (36), who had set off for a visit to a political party's office in Mumbai—were treated at the civic hospital.

A hydraulic crane was deployed to remove the trailer, after which the traffic movement resumed.

Relevant sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Motor Vehicles Act have been invoked against Yadav, who hails from UP, for rash and negligent driving causing death.

Last month, a propylene tanker carrying nearly 21,000kg of highly flammable compressed gas overturned onto its side near the Adoshi tunnel on the expressway, leading to a 32-hour traffic disruption and vehicles piling up for several kilometres.