In a tragic mishap on the Mumbai-Goa highway, 37 persons were killed and 15 others injured, when a private luxury bus broke through the parapet of a bridge and plunged into Jagbudi river in Ratnagiri district of coastal Konkan region on Tuesday morning.
The Mumbai-bound bus hit the parapet and fell off the bridge and rolled onto the dry river bed from a height of 40 feet, when the driver lost control of the vehicle. The mishap took place at around 3.30 am.
Hearing the shrieks of passengers from the bus, locals rushed to the spot and alerted the authorities. The official team, which reached an hour later, used gas cutters to rip open the bus that had landed upside down on the river bed, rescued the injured and removed bodies of passengers who died instantly.
The injured were rushed to hospitals at Khed and Mumbai, where the condition of atleast 14 was reported to be serious.
The authorities have prima facie attributed the mishap to a human error. “The mishap took place after the bus driver lost control of the vehicle. We are not sure whether he was drunk at that time of the accident or not. We have arrested him and are subjecting him to a medical test to ascertain if he was under the influence of alcohol,” a senior Ratnagiri district police official said.
There were in all 54 passengers, including two drivers and a cleaner, on board. A few foreigners were also among the passengers. 18 bodies were identified till evening.
Following the mishap, traffic on the Mumbai-Goa Highway remained disrupted for more than four hours.
Meanwhile, the Khed road accident sparked angry reactions among the legislators attending the Budget session of the Maharashtra legislature in Mumbai, where the leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, Eknath Khadse, demanded a judicial probe into the incident. The Opposition members pilloried the State Government for the delay in quadrupling the Mumbai-Goa highway where mishaps have become a regular affair.
“We have been hearing over the years that the work of the quadrupling of highway would be taken up and completed soon. But the State Government is not attaching any importance to the much-discussed project. This is a narrow highway. The traffic flow is very high, there are no dividers....that is why accidents take place. There should be a judicial probe into the mishap,” Khadse told mediapersons.
Holding the State Government responsible, senior Sena leader Ramdas Kadam said, “Had the highway been quadrupled, this kind of a mishap could have been averted”.
leader of the Opposition in the State legislative Council Vinod Tawde of the BJP also slammed the Congress-led DF Government for the delay in the execution of the highway quadrupling work. “loss of lives during travel, that too, on a busy highway, at regular intervals is shocking and a matter of concern,” Tawde said.
In a related development, Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan expressed grief over the loss of lives caused by the accident. “I was deeply saddened to know about the loss of lives caused by the unfortunate road accident. I convey my heartfelt condolences to those who lost their near and dear ones in the accident and wish speedy recovery to the injured,” the Governor said in a statement released.