Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi expressway mishap: 25 charred to death after bus catches fire

By Rajendra B Aklekar Eshan Kalyanikar Ranjeet Jadhav and Rian KhoranaTwenty five people died and six others including the driver were injured when a bus caught fire following a crash on the NagpurMumbai Samruddhi Expressway near Sindkhed Raja in Buldhana in the early hours of Saturday Authorities are currently in the process of identifying the bodies many of which are charred beyond recognitionAccording to a preliminary report by the state transport departmentrsquos Amravati RTO and Road Safety Cell a copy of which is with Sunday midday the incident occurred at 132 am As per details the Ashok Leyland bus operated by the Nagpurbased Vidarbha Travels was carrying a total of 33 passengers and was en route Pune from Nagpur The driver told officials that he lost control of the vehicle after a tyre burst and crashed into an iron pole However as per eyewitness accounts the bus first hit a fourfeettall pole on the right side The impact of the collision caused the axle of the front wheel to get detached from the bus chasis the bus tilted on the right side and hit the divider on the side of the fuel tank The engine oil of the vehicle was already hot and this led the vehicle to immediately catch fire the report readCM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis meet the injured victims at Rural Hospital Deulgaon Raja in BuldhanaWhile the driver managed to leap out of the vehicle most of the passengers who were caught unawares couldnrsquot escape and were killed in the fire Five others who managed to get out in the nick of time have sustained injuries and are currently receiving treatment at the Rural Hospital Deulgaon Raja in Buldhana ldquoTheir condition is stablerdquo said Dr Praveen Ghongate Buldhanarsquos resident medical officer outreachThey have been identified as Sandeep Maroti Rathod from Tivas Yogesh Ramrao Gavai from Aurangabad Sainath Dharam Singh Pawar from Mahur Shashikant Ramakrishna Gajbhiye Pandharkawda Yavatmal and Pankaj Ramesh Chandra from Kangra Himachal Pradesh The driver Sheikh Danish Sheikh Ismail hails from Yavatmal He has been taken into police custody for questioning and authorities are investigating his claims of a tyre burst The investigating team has however ruled out speeding Having taken into account the time the bus took to enter the expressway after leaving from Nagpur at 5 pm officials concluded that the bus was travelling at a speed of about 70 kmphAayush Ghatge who survived the incident said that he was sleeping when two persons suddenly fell on him ldquoI realised that the bus had crashedrdquo he says ldquoI managed to break a window pane of the bus me and two other persons got out so that we could ask for assistancerdquo Minutes after they stepped out the bus caught fire He didnrsquot sustain any injuriesChandra a biomedical service engineer who got out of the bus along with Ghatge said that he and the others who managed to escape helplessly watched the bus catch fire ldquoNone of the passing motorists tried to help Instead of aiding the rescue effort they were busy taking videosrdquoThe first Quick Response Vehicle arrived 25 minutes after the crash Atul Umbarkar first responder and driver of the local police van told midday that the vehiclersquos fire extinguisher wasnrsquot equipped to contain the fire ldquoWe lost another 40 minutes before the fire brigade arrived and actual extinguishing startedrdquo he said adding ldquoLives could have been savedrdquoThe authorities are still in the process of identifying the deceased 14 of whom hailed from Wardha Ramesh Kolape Tehsildar from Wardha is in Buldhana to coordinate with families Kolape said that many relatives have already arrived while some are on their way The oldest person who lost their life was a 63yearold woman and the youngest was a twoyearoldSpeaking with midday Ankush Gavande Nagpurrsquos Disaster Management Officer said that four of the 25 victims were from his district ldquoWe have contacted their family members and they are on their way to BuldhanardquoMeanwhile Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited Buldhana to assess the situation and an exgratia of Rs 5 lakh has been announced for the families of the victims The NagpurMumbai Samruddhi Expressway opened to public on December 11 the stretch has since reported 169 accidents and 102 deathsOpposition reactsUddhav Thackeray former CM of MaharashtralsquoEver since the Expressway opened the accidents havenrsquot stopped it has already killed some 300 people so far The government hasnrsquot done anything about the safety This tragedy should open the eyes of the governmentrsquoSharad Pawar NCP chieflsquoThe tragedy raises a question of speeding of private vehicles that needs to be tackled by the government The preventive measures should be implemented at the earliest I had already suggested it to the department concernedrsquoImtiaz Jalil AIMIM MPlsquoI want to know whether the MSRDC had received a road safety clearance Did the agency even know about the dangers the road posed The two leaders opened the expressway in a hasty manner It is because of that haste that so many have died so far This is not an accident but a murderrsquo25 minTime it took for first quick response team to arrive at site