3 die in truck - tempo accident

Aurangabad, March 19:

Three youths died while one seriously injured in the accident of truck and a tempo on Gagapur - Vaijapur Road at around 8 kms away from Gangapur while they were returning after paying obeisance at Shirdi on Friday night.

The deceased have been identified as Rohit Arvind Survase (25), Akash Navnath Kshirsagar (23, both residents of Solapur)and Ganesh Pappu Shirsath (21, Arvani, Ashti, Beed). Shivshankar Sanghvi (Chakur) is seriously injured.

These four were working for a private company on the tunnel work near Karmad at Aurangabad - Jalna Road. Being holiday on Friday, they planned to go to Shirdi in a tempo (MH13 CU 1500). While returning after paying obeisance to Saibaba, they dashed to a truck (MH18 AA 2737) laden with sugarcane and going towards Vaijapur at around 10 pm. All the four persons in the tempo were seriously injured and were rushed to Gangapur Sub-district Hospital. The doctors declared three of them dead after the examination. Out of the deceased, Ganesh and Akash were engineers while Shivshankar and Rohit were site supervisors.

The accident was so severe that the front portion of the tempo was completely crushed while the truck turned turtle. The traffic was blocked on both sides of the road as sugarcane was spread all over. The truck driver fled from the scene after the accident. A case has been registered with Gangapur police station while PSI Shakeel Shaikh is further investigating the case.

As the four employees had a holiday due to Holi, they planned to go to Shirdi. However, they informed the company officer that they are going to Aurangabad from the site in the company vehicle. They went to Shirdi and met the accident in the return journey. All the three deceased are unmarried. Ganesh was working with the company for the past two years and is survived by parents, two sister and a younger brother. Akash was working for the past eight months and is survived by parents and a sister. Rohit joined the work just 15 days back and is survived by parents, grandmother and a brother.

The Vaijapur - Gangapur Highway is proving a death trap for the vehicle owners. In all, six persons died in the accidents in the past fortnight. The residents have demanded that dividers should be erected on this road.