Car skids on oil spill and hits bus in Kamshet Tunnel on Mumbai-Pune Expressway, 5 dies

Four members of a family and a driver from Virar died after the car they were travelling in skid on an oil spill inside Kamshet tunnel on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and rammed a parked luxury bus. Three others were injured in the accident that took place on Sunday 2017-05-07 afternoon.

The deceased were identified as Dattatray Deshmukh (63), his wife Bhagini (60), daughter Rakhee Patil (38), granddaughter Shraddha Patil (19) and car driver Deepak Waghashe. The injured - Dattatray's son Rupesh (34), grandson Om Deshmukh (2) and granddaughter Sanjana Patil (15) - have been admitted to Lokmanya Hospital in Nigdi, Pune. Their condi tion is critical, said Kamshet police sub-inspector Bhosale.The Deshmukhs and Patils were returning home when their car met with an accident.

According to the police, the driver of the luxury bus, which was plying from Pune to Mumbai, noticed a fire in the fuel tank as the vehicle entered the tunnel. He pulled over to the ex treme left inside the tunnel and rushed out to douse the fire. But as a lot of fuel had already spilled on to the road, the Honda Mobilio that was coming from behind the bus at high speed, skid. The driver lost control of the vehicle and it spun and crashed into the bus, said a police officer. Waghashe died on the spot.

“The highway patrol police and IRB rescue team rushed to the spot with an ambulance. All injured passengers were taken to hospital, but four of them were declared brought dead. The three others are in critical condition,“ said Bhosale. “Traffic movement was disrupted for an hour as other motorists slowed down inside the tunnel to look at the mangled car.“

This was the second time in the day that traffic came to a standstill on the same stretch.Around 8.30am, a speeding eggladen truck rammed into a crane near Kamshet tunnel and fell on its side. As the highway patrol police halted traffic on one lane on the Mumbai corridor to wash away the smashed eggs that had made the road slippery , vehicles lined up.

Source: May 08 2017, The Times of India (Mumbai)