Mumbai: At least 10 people were killed and 26 injured after a speeding bus collided head-on with a truck in Maharashtra's Nashik district early on Friday morning, police officials said.
The incident took place around 6 am on the Nashik-Ahmednagar highway near Pathare Shivar village in Nashik’s Sinnar tehsil, around 180 km from Mumbai.
The injured were were treated in different hospitals of Nashik, Shirdi, and Sinnar, including some multi-speciality private hospital. Two of them are in intensive care units.
The deceased included seven women and two small boys.
Many of the 47 passengers of the private tourist bus were employees of a company located in Ambernath in Thane district who were travelling to the temple town of Shirdi in Ahmednagardistrict, according to officials.
One side of the two-lane Sinnar-Shirdi stretch of the road near the accident spot had been closed for some work, according to officials of the state highway control room.
Both vehicles were completely wrecked after the collision. The bus was virtually cut open along one side and reduced to a shell, while the front cabin of the truck was a mangled heap.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the loss of life in the incident and announced ex gratia of Rs2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund to the next-of-kin of each deceased. The injured would be given Rs50,000 each, the Prime Minister’s Office tweeted.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde also announced financial help of Rs5 lakh each for the kin of the deceased and ordered an inquiry into the cause of the accident. In a tweet, Mr Shinde expressed grief over the incident. The government will bear the expenses of the treatment of the injured, according to a statement from his office.
Mr Shinde spoke to the Nashik divisional commissioner and asked him to shift the injured immediately to Nashik and Shirdi for treatment and also conduct an inquiry into the causes of the accident.
Nashik collector Gangatharan D said that six of the 10 deceased persons have been identified.
A pall of gloom descended on Morivali village in Ambernath tehsil when news of the tragedy came, as at least eight of the deceased were as at least eight of the deceased were from the village and worked as packers at Balaji Packing Company, Ambernath tehsildar Prashanti Mane said. It was a tradition with company employees to arrange tours to pilgrimage sites every year, she said.
Local MLA Balaji Kinnikar visited the village and assured that government will extend all help to the victims' families.
Nashik guardian minister Dada Bhuse visited a hospital in Sinnar where some of the injured persons were undergoing treatment.
