In the Nashik-Ahmednagar highway accident on Friday, at least eight of the 10 deceased victims were from Morivali village in Ambernath. Twenty-six others were injured and are undergoing treatment.
The local authorities said 200 employees of a private firm based in the MIDC area of Ambernath were on their annual trip to Shirdi with their family members. They were travelling in 15 buses and at the time of incident four buses had reached the destination.
One of the employees, Shashank Amre said, “When our bus reached Shirdi depot, we found out that bus number 5 had met with an accident. We have been undertaking such trips every year, so we all know each other well.” Mr Amre said 47 people were travelling in the bus that collided with the truck. “Minutes before the accident, I had spoken to a colleague and everyone was sleeping. He later said that he woke up and saw a tanker coming head-on and the bus driver tried hard to avoid the collision,” he said.
Mr Amre said they saw the bus later and its cabin was sliced by the tanker. “The passengers on the left side of the bus sustained maximum injuries,” he said.
Some of the injured have been identified as Nidhi Ubale, 9; Maya Jhadhav, 17; Prashant Mehti, 17; Sunil Dalvi, 31; Ranjana Potle, 40; Seema Oak, 40; Sapna Donge, 28; Dhanisha Wadekar, 6; Shivnay Bhaskar, 5; Asha Jaiswal, 43; Babli Kahar, 33; Yogita Wadekar; Supriya Mayur Mahesh; Rutika Gondhale, 42; Varsha Behra, 31; Harshada Wadekar, 14 (all residents of Ambernath), and Nirmal Gajjar, 35, a resident of Ulhasnagar.
MLA from Ambernath, Dr Balaji Kinikar, who is said to have helped many victims received the information about the incident around 9.30am. “I rushed to the spot and we immediately started moving the victims out of the bus to take them to the hospitals,” he said, adding that around 20 injured persons were in a critical condition when admitted to hospital. “By evening, only two were in the ICU in a critical state, while the other 18 were out of danger,” he added.
