A 26-year-old woman was crushed to death under the trolley of a crane, used for carrying heavy metro girders, after it accidentally separated from the crane and rammed into a metro pillar on the Western Express near Andheri on Saturday morning.
The woman, who was waiting near a bus stop, came under the rear wheels of the trolley and died. Following the accident, the crane drive fled from the spot.
According to the police, the incident took place at around 6 am at Gundavali bus stop in Andheri, where the deceased, Falguni Patel, and her cousin sister Tulsi Patel (32), were waiting to collect a parcel that was to arrive from Gujarat. Both residents of Chandivali in Sakinaka, had come to the location on their scooter and were waiting for the parcel to arrive.
According to the police, the driver of the crane (NL 02 L 8074) which was heading towards Bandra from Jogeshwari lost control of the vehicle. The trolley rammed into a metro pillar where Falguni was standing. She got trapped under the rear wheels of the trolley and died on the spot. Tulsi escaped with minor injuries. A taxi and an autorickshaw were also damaged.
Following the accident, the crane driver, identified as Vinod Yadav (40), fled from the spot. “We have registered an offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section of rash driving (279), causing death by negligence (304,A) and causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others (337) and under the sections of Motor Vehicle act, and launched a manhunt for the driver,” said an officer from Andheri police station.
In a series of tweets, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is executing metro rail projects in the city, said a puller axle crane of Metro Line 2A (DN Nagar to Dahisar) had a technical failure. The locking pin between the puller and axel was broken and the latter swung uncontrollably, resulting in a fatal collision with a woman.
MMRDA added that a three-member committee has been constituted for a detailed investigation, headed by project director P R K Murthy and a report is expected in two days. While the vehicle was not executing any Metro Line work at the accident place, it was returning from Metro Line 2A construction site and the contractor of the same has been notified and will be penalised for negligence and damage, it added. “The incident near the NCC package project site has also resulted in the damage of pier 50 of package 91 (Line 7) and appropriate actions will be taken against the vehicle owner for these damages to Metro Line 7,” it said.
