6 of family, driver die in Goa highway mishap

NAVI MUMBAI: Seven Dombivli residents, including a woman and an eight-year-old boy, were killed when the car they were travelling in had a head-on collision with a state transport bus on the Mumbai-Goa

highway

around 5.45am on Sunday. The driver of the

Shivneri bus

and a passenger on the bus were injured in the

mishap

. Five of the deceased persons died on the spot. The accident took place near Indapur, about 127km from Mumbai, in Raigad. The car bearing registration number MH 05 BS 6995 hit the bus with registration number MH 04FK 1530. The bus was on its way to Mumbai from Panaji while the car was on its way to Ratnagiri. “The deceased have been identified as Vrusabh Swapnil Tambe (8), Swati Swapnil Tambe (35), Swapnil Rajaram Tambe (35), Santosh Tukaram Tambe (43), Bhikuram Yashwant Tambe (72), Suryakant Bhikuram Tambe (47) and the car driver Pravin Suresh Pandav (29),” said head constable of Mangaon police station Usha Bhise. Bus driver Jitendra Khose and a passenger R R More from Kalamboli sustained minor injuries, according to a highway traffic police official. Sources at Mangaon Rural Hospital said excessive bleeding coupled with head injuries had caused the deaths. “Six people from Tambe family had hired the car to attend a function at their hometown in Ratnagiri. The driver was their neighbour. They had started from home after midnight,” said a relative of the Tambes, Mahendra Saindane. State highway traffic police inspector Ajit Bartakke said the accident could have occurred when the driver of the car tried to overtake another vehicle moving ahead of it. “Possibly that’s when the car was hit by the oncoming bus.” Deputy superintendent of police (highway traffic) Chandrasekhar Sawant said the possibility that drowsiness on part of the driver having caused the mishap could not be ruled out. Sawant said the accident led to a jam for over 30 minutes on that stretch of the highway. Sub-inspector Rahul Dongre of Mangaon police station said Swapnil died while being taken to a hospital in Panvel while Suryakant breathed his last at a hospital in Roha. A case of fatal accident has been registered under Motor Vehicles Act. “The bus driver has been taken into custody,” he said.