8 dead as car gets crushed between two container trucks on Mumbai-Bengaluru highway

Eight persons were killed and 14 others injured after a car got crushed between two large container trucks with a huge fire engulfing all three vehicles on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway here on Thursday evening, police said. The horrific incident involving multiple vehicles took place on Navale Bridge, infamous as an accident-prone stretch. Officials suspected that the CNG kit in the car exploded following the impact which led to the fire. "As per preliminary information, a heavy container truck was going towards Mumbai. Its driver lost control due to a suspected brake failure on the bridge, and it hit a few vehicles in its way including a mini-bus before ramming into another big container in front. A car was caught between these two trucks and got crushed badly," Deputy Commissioner of Police Sambhaji Kadam said.

The impact triggered a huge fire and the three vehicles got engulfed in it, he said. Most of the injured were travelling in the minibus. Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar, who visited the spot, said, "The fire erupted due to the impact of the collision." Traffic on the Bengaluru-Mumbai carriageway of the highway was stopped and the work of removing the gutted vehicles was underway. Eight fire tenders and tankers were rushed to the spot, a fire brigade official said. "When our personnel reached the spot, they found that a car was trapped between two big container trucks and a huge fire had erupted. The fire was doused. Charred bodies were retrieved from a truck and the car," said Devendra Potphode, Chief Fire Officer, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). Municipal commissioner Naval Kishore Ram said the disaster management, fire department and medical teams of the PMC rushed to the site and conducted the rescue and relief operations. "Ambulances, cranes and JCBs were deployed and the injured were shifted to hospitals," he said. In a statement, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis termed the accident as "tragic and painful", and announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia to the next of kin of the deceased. The deceased in the car were identified as Swati Santosh Navalkar (37), Shanta Dattatray Dabhade (54), Dattatray Chandrakant Dabhade (58), all residents of Dhayari in Pune; Mokshita Reddy (3), a resident of Chikhli in Pimpri Chinchwad, and Dhananjay Koli (30), a resident of Kolhapur. Another deceased was identified as Rohit Kadam (25), a resident of Satara. The identity of two others, whose bodies were recovered from