Driver, nephew contradict accident cause

A contrary view has emerged in the freeway accident, in which six people were killed, as the driver Mangru Verma claimed that the incident occurred when he swerved the vehicle to avoid ramming into a bus. However, Mr Verma’s nephew, who was in the cab, claimed the accident happened because of another car. He also contradicted his uncle’s claim that he wasn’t overspeeding. A traffic constable, who was present at the end of the freeway and an eyewitness to the incident, also claimed he saw the car speeding before the accident.

According to Mr Verma, a bus had suddenly cornered them from the right forcing him to swerve to the left and into wall of the eastern freeway. He said, “I was driving the taxi at a reasonable speed but a bus came in all of a sudden, as a result I had to swerve to the left and in the process we crashed into the wall.”

This is very different from what Vinay, nephew of Mr Verma, has said. “We were going a little faster than the normal speed and there wasn’t much traffic during that time. But suddenly a car came out of nowhere and my uncle had to swerve to the left suddenly and we completely went out of control,” he said.

On the other hand, traffic policemen present when the incident had occurred at around 8.50 am witnessed the gruesome accident. One of the officers, senior police inspector of Pydhonie traffic police station, Pramod Tambe said, “We tried our best to save lives but the accident was too major for anyone to be saved. This turn on the exit of the freeway not only notifies commuters with the speed turn but also the limit to be maintained by them.”

The team, including Mr Tambe, constable Pravin Shinde and two other head constables, rushed to the spot immediately after the accident. Speaking to The Asian Age, Mr Shinde, who is not only an eyewitness but also one of the people involved in the rescue operation, said, “I had just reached the chowki for my duty hour was to begin After I parked by bike and was moving towards the chowki, I saw this Santro car speeding on the sharp turn. It was then that the two women seated towards the divider of the freeway fell out of the car and dashed the pole number 9A on the southbound of the exit of freeway.”

“These two women’s head fell apart from their bodies, after which the car dragged up to 50 metres of the divider and finally rammed into it. Apart from the two women whose bodies lay behind the accident spot, six from the car were critically injured while three others, including the driver sustained minor shoulder and eye injuries. We had no time to call for our vehicle and hence we started stopping the taxis ferrying their passengers. We had to offload the passengers and put the critically injured people in them so that they could be rushed to J.J. Hospital. The doctor on duty in the casualty department however, declared them Dead On Arrival.

While speaking to the family it was learnt the family members were seated on each other’s lap and probably hadn’t locked the door of the cab, due to which the pressure on the two women threw them out of the cab towards the divider,” he further said.