8 hospitalised, 24 vehicles damaged in mega pile-up on highway near Pune

At least 24 vehicles were damaged after a truck lost control on the downward slope of a bridge on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway late Sunday evening, in which several persons suffered injuries with eight of them being hospitalised, a police official said.

The accident occurred on Navale bridge to suspected brake failure of the truck when it was moving towards Pune, he said.

Ten to 15 people received minor injuries in the incident and they were given first aid on the spot. However, six to eight others were shifted to two hospitals for treatment, the official said.

"The truck hit some vehicles on the road due to suspected brake failure and at least 24 vehicles, including the truck, suffered damages in the incident. While 22 of these vehicles were cars, one was an autorickshaw. Fortunately, there is no loss of human life in the accident," Suhel Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone III) said.

The damaged vehicles are being removed from the road and traffic on the route will be cleared after some time.

Meanwhile, a fire department of the Pune Metropolitical Region Development Authority (PMRDA) claimed that at least 48 vehicles were damaged in the incident, including those that suffered minor damage.

A man, whose car was damaged in the accident, said that the speeding truck first rammed into some of the vehicles on the road, which in turn hit some other vehicles.

"Our car was also hit. We were four people in the vehicle and fortunately nothing happened to us as the airbags opened, but we saw that several vehicles around us on the road were badly hit," he said.