In the accident that took place on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, most of the victims were passengers of the luxury bus. Even the 66-year-old driver of the bus, Iqbal Shaikh, booked by investigating officers for causing the mishap, was also pronounced dead on arrival at MGM Hospital Vashi.
Iqbal’s brother, Sikandar Shaikh, who resides in Vashi, said he came to know about the accident through news reports on television. “My brother has been a driver for the past three decades; he has never been involved in an accident. When I reached the spot and enquired about the incident, people said that Iqbal was trying to steer the vehicle away but lost control,” he said. Sikandar added that two four wheelers, parked in the middle of the expressway caused the mishap.
Tanaji Yadav, grandfather of one of the 17 victims, two-and-a-half year old Vedika Yadav, said, “I was at home in Byculla when I received the call from Satara, informing me about the incident. When I reached MGM Hospital, my sister informed me about Vedika and said her husband was missing. Later at the post-mortem centre, I found out that both of them had been victims. The family is distraught ”
Police officials confirmed that the victims were rushed to five hospitals in Panvel including MGM, Panacea, Prachin, Ashtavinayak and Gandhi hospitals while casualties were rushed to the civil hospital in Panvel for post-mortem. “The injured were taken to hospitals in police vans and ambulances. Our major focus was to inform all families and hand over bodies as soon as possible so that there was no delay. All police officials from Vashi and Panvel were deployed to cater to the injured and ensure that the respective families met the patients,” said Nitin Pawar, spokesperson of Navi Mumbai police.
Seventeen of those injured were taken to MGM Hospital Kamothe and most of them were discharged by end of day except for two people who were kept in ICU. “One of the ICU patients is critical as of now due to multiple injuries while the other, who has sustained chest trauma, is relatively stable. Most people have taken discharge to go to other hospitals,” said a treating doctor from MGM Hospital.
Yogesh Tandel, administrator, Panacea Hospital, where around seven teen victims were rushed, said that apart from two youngsters — Shamal Mudgal (19) and Sandip Gaikwad (14) — the rest had sustained minor injuries and had been discharged already. “Shamal has already undergone brain surgery and is on ventilator. Sandip has sustained blunt stomach trauma injury and general surgeons are treating him,” he said.
Meanwhile, MSRDC minister Eknath Shinde visited the injured in hospitals and assured them that the state government would pay for treatment of all victims of the accident. -"We are trying different means to prevent accidents on expressway. We have decided to install 95km-long brifen wire alongside the Expressway to prevent toppling of vehicles. To prevent landslides, we have installed protective nets around Khandala,” he said.
