Grandmother, three kids mowed down by truck

Nagpur: The Sathe family from Rajasthan lost four members of their family when a speeding truck mowed down an elderly woman and her three grandchildren at Neeri Shivar, National Highway 7, Nagpur-Jalgaon Road, on Wednesday afternoon. Seeking shelter from the scorching Sun, 60-year-old Devalbai Sathe had taken her four grandchildren to sit in the shade of the roadside tree when the driver of the truck lost control and ran over them. One of the grandchildren survived unscathed. “The truck driver, identified as Ashok Shende, claimed that he skid off the road and could not control the speed before the truck crushed the kids and the senior citizen. All four were rushed to the nearby government rural hospital, where doctors declared them as brought dead,” said UB Mudak, senior police inspector of Kamptee police station. Shende, from Parseoni, tried to flee the spot after the accident but passers-by and nearby people surrounded him immediately. Besides Devalbai, the deceased were identified as one-year-old Jaya, three-year-old Ramu and six-year-old Kajal. Mudak said that the elder brother of the three deceased children was also sitting with his siblings, but he survived luckily. “The poor parents witnessed the incident from a nearby farm, and for few minutes assumed they had lost all four kids,” said Mudak. Police said the Sathe family belongs to the Kathiyawadi community from Rajasthan. The community is engaged in herding cattle from one place to another. The families walk long distances with grazing cattle and stay on farms. On Wednesday, while other members of the family were looking after the cattle at the farm, Devalbai took the kids to rest in the shade of the tree. Police said truck driver Shende was driving down the wrong lane. Shende claimed he swerved the truck in a bid to save a pedestrian, who was talking on his cell phone. The sudden turn sent Shende’s truck down the road, and it ran over the kids and the elderly woman. He claimed to have applied the brakes immediately, but the vehicle did not stop in time. Shende was heading to Kamptee from Nagpur. He has been arrested under relevant charges by Kamptee police. The accident led to tension and the roads were blocked for some time. However, Kamptee police reached the spot within minutes and brought the situation under control. All the bodies were handed over to the Sathe family by evening after post mortem at the rural government hospital.