18 labourers killed as truck overturns in Maharashtra

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, April 10

Eighteen people, including four women and a child, were killed after a truck they were travelling in overturned on the Pune-Bangalore highway in Maharashtra’s Satara district early on Tuesday morning. The condition of three others is serious, police said.

According to the police, the driver of the truck apparently dozed off causing the vehicle to veer off the road around 4.30 am. More than 35 labourers, including members of three families from Karnataka who were going to work as contract workers at the Shirwal industrial estate near Pune, were on board the truck, police said.

“The truck was carrying construction material made of steel which fell on the passengers on board, causing grievous injuries,” a police official said. The vehicle was illegally carrying passengers, police added. All the dead suffered injuries in their head.

The accident took place on the hilly ghat section when the driver reportedly lost control over the truck, which rammed into the safety barrier on the hillside and turned on its side, traffic police officials said.

The dead have been identified as Madhavi Rathod (45), Shankar Chavan (55), Santosh Naik (32), Mangalabai Naik (42), Krushna Pawar (60), Kiran Rathod (15), Devabai Rathod (27), Priyanka Rathod (18), Vitthal Rathod (40), Kallubai Rathod (35), Devanand Rathod (35), Sangeeta Rathod (26), a child Tanveer Rathod (aged 18 months), Shrikant Rathod (38), Sinoo Rathod (30), Arjun Chavan (30), Mehboob Atar (55) and Majid (25).