Pune: Two people lost their lives and seven others injured in an accident when a trailer rammed through vehicles near the Navale Bridge on Sunday.
The accident took place on Sunday’s busy evening on the road from Katraj to the Navale bridge. Four cars, two bikes and a tempo were damaged in the accident. All injured people were taken to private hospitals near the site and the three seriously injured were referred to the Sassoon General Hospital.
Navale Bridge from past few years is considered as a hotspot for accidents in Pune city. This is the fifth accident this year so far in the surroundings of the Navale bridge. Just a week before, three people were injured in two accidents connecting five vehicles. In the first week of October, a truck had rammed through multiple vehicles near the bridge, killing a motorcyclist and injuring eight others.
The region near the Navale Bridge has witnessed accidents on many occasions before. The site is one of the busiest roads in the city, connecting the Mumbai and Bengaluru highways. The accident site is a point where travellers coming from the new Katraj tunnel and heading towards Sinhagad Road, travel into the service road from the bypass and those from Sinhagad Road come on to the bypass resulting traffic jams and the slowdown of vehicles coming from the Katraj tunnel. One can see that the gradient slope from the Katraj tunnel also leads multiple accident.
Not only this but it is seen that many vehicles ply on the wrong side of the road as well as hawkers have also occupied a portion of the road. The incomplete road widening work and potholes are also parameters leading to cause multiple accidents.
Mohan Deshmukh from the accident department at Bharati Vidyapeeth police station said, “No doubt it is the accident hotspot. Many people here drive carelessly. The signal timing below Navle Bridge should be increased on priority and multiple blinkers should be placed here.”
Shivraj Pujari, who commutes daily from this route said, “This site has become one of the ‘haunted sites’ now. From the past five years, every other month we hear about some big accident leading fatalities. Despite wearing a helmet, one has to risk his life daily. The site is busy as it connects towards Hinjawadi, Wakad, Baner, Pashan where many people ply daily.”
On the other side, commuters using stretch are waiting for the completion of a six-lane concrete road on the four km long road. In February 2019, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari had approved the road widening project to ease the traffic on Wadgaon-Katraj stretch. The work is given to the Central Public Works Department (PWD) and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).