Another accident on E way Pune - Mumbai
Buffalo Vs Captiva
On September 18, 2010, Pune Mirror carried a report on the grazing cattle, bikers and pedestrians which cause mishaps on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Yet another accident took place on Thursday night, this time caused by a buffalo crossing the road.
Kishore Chobhe, a businessman and six of his friends were travelling from Vashi, Mumbai to Pune in his Chevrolet Captiva (MH 16 AJ 3491) via the Eway. They left from Vashi at around 11.00 pm at night and were travelling at a speed of 80-90km/hr. According to Kishore, “On 18 Nov 2010, around 12.00am we crossed the Khalapur Toll Plaza, and two kms from the toll plaza, a black buffalo was crossing the road. Since the road was dark, the buffalo was not visible at all. We dashed into it and fortunately, there were no other vehicles around. Our driver managed to regain control over the car pretty quickly, so luckily we survived, with minor bruises. Unfortunately, the buffalo did not survive.” After the accident, Kishore tried getting in touch with the highway helpline but he could not get through to them. Kishore and his companions then walked to the Khalapur Toll Plaza and informed the officials on duty about the accident. After that, Kishore hired a vehicle and came back to Pune. The next day, he got in touch with the Patrolling Team and picked up his car at 11.00 am on 19 nov 2010. “It was a new vehicle. The collision was such a terrible one, that when I took the vehicle to the showroom to repair it, the expenditure quoted was around Rs three lakh, and the estimated time for repair, three months. The accident was completely unexpected, as we could have never predicted that a buffalo would cross our path on the E-way.” He said.
When Pune Mirror got in touch with the Expressway control room in-charge, Rohidas Jagtap, he said, “There is fencing on the E-way which has been broken by the residents of nearby villages. We have started taking strict actions against these villagers. When we come to know about any vandalism, we report it to that particular police station and action is taken by them. We repair and rebuild the fences which are broken. Various meetings are conducted and several written applications submitted to the senior officials in this regard. The number of vandalism incidents has definitely reduced, compared to before, as strict action is being taken against these villagers. |