Two persons were killed and 26 others injured after a private bus and a truck collided in Maharashtra`s Washim district on Wednesday morning, an official said, reported the PTI.
The truck was going from Nagpur to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, while the bus was on its way from Pune towards Karanja near Pedgaon village in the district when the accident occurred around 7 am, the official said.
The truck driver lost control over the wheel after one of the tyres of his vehicle burst. The truck swerved to the right and collided with a bus coming from the opposite direction, the official said.
The drivers of both vehicles died in the accident. Twenty-six persons, including six seriously, were injured, said the official from Mangrulpir police station, adding that the injured persons are being treated at hospitals in Akola, Washim and Shelubazar, according to the PTI.
Two killed as truck rams into divider on bridge in Thane
Meanwhile, in an another incident, a truck driver and a helper were killed after their vehicle carrying iron rods and pipes hit into a divider on a bridge and crashed into a street light pole in Maharashtra`s Thane city shortly after midnight on Tuesday, civic officials said, as per the PTI.
The accident took place at the Patlipada bridge on Ghodbunder Road when the truck was on way from Navi Mumbai to Gujarat, they said.
The incident was reported by traffic police to the local control room at 12.35 am, a senior civic official said on Wednesday.
“The driver appeared to have lost control of the truck while crossing the Patlipada bridge. The vehicle rammed into the central divider and crashed into a street light pole, causing the truck`s cabin to crumple completely,” he said.
Traffic police personnel, a disaster management cell team and fire brigade rushed to the spot.
“It took us about 45 minutes to pull out both the driver and helper from the severely mangled cabin using specialised hydraulic tools,” the official said, reported the PTI.
Both the persons were immediately sent to a government hospital in Thane where doctors declared them brought dead, he said.
The deceased have been identified as truck driver Vinod (42) and helper Rahim Pathan (25), both residents of Uttar Pradesh, the official said, the news agency reported.
The accident left iron rods and pipes, weighing nearly 8 tons, scattered across the road and oil from the damaged vehicle also spilled on the route, blocking traffic in both directions.
Rescue teams, with the help of a hydra machine, later moved the materials to the roadside. Hose reels and water jets were used to remove the oil spill, the official said.
The clean-up operation took nearly three hours during which traffic was diverted through the service roads, he said.
The accident-hit truck was shifted to the roadside and the debris cleared by 3 am, and vehicular movement resumed thereafter, the official said.
Preliminary findings suggested the driver may have dozed off or lost control over the wheels due to fatigue, he said, adding a probe was on into the incident.
(with PTI inputs)