Bodies of 17 road accident victims identified, returned

The bodies of 17 persons, who perished in the tragic accident when a container truck dashed headlong into a jeep ferrying passengers on the Surat-Kolkata NH No 6 in Dhule on Friday evening, were identified on Saturday. Their bodies were handed to their relatives after an autopsy was carried out on Saturday.

The dead include 10 women, some of whom were hospital workers, while the injured are recuperating at Dhule Civil Hospital. The taxi driver is among the dead while truck driver Ratansingh Gurdassingh Randhava (32) is reportedly serious.

The accident occurred in Kasvihir village, also called as Katsa village near the Dhule-Jalgaon border. Dhule additional superintendent of police (SP) Chandrakant Gawali said that the accident occurred when one of the wheels of the 16-wheel container truck broke.

“The truck driver lost control of the vehicle which swerved and collided headlong into the incoming taxi. The dead include 10 women; we are trying to contact their families,” said Mr Gawali, who was at the accident site.

The bodies were mangled beyond recognition as the taxi was completely crushed by the heavy truck, said villagers, who had aided the rescue operations. They called the police, who summoned a crane to extricate the jeep from the container truck.

The jeep was ferrying labourers home towards Dhule from Chalisgaon, while the North India-registered truck was on its way towards Jalgaon when the accident occurred between 4.30 pm to 4.45 pm, police said. Dhule taluka police station has registered the accident.

Sources said that the civil hospital had been shifted to Hire Medical College but the hospital and the civil numbers had not been transferred yet, which severely inconvenienced relatives who were trying to contact the hospital.