The Purnekar family holds a press conference
Vasai : A 26-year-old woman, Dhanashree Sonawane, died of severe head injuries on Wednesday after a container truck hit her scooter as she was negotiating the traffic congestion in Vasai caused by a protest over Shiv Sena (UBT) Manpada division chief Pradeep Purnekar’s murder in Thane district. The protest disrupted traffic on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway for nearly 10 hours and thousands of commuters, including office-goers, industrial workers and schoolchildren, were stranded during morning rush hour. The agitation, held on Tuesday night to protest Purnekar’s murder in Sept, ended at 5 am but vehicular movement remained severely affected until afternoon. On Wednesday, around 9.45 am, she was trying to make her way through the traffic jam within the jurisdiction of Pelhar police station when a goods container truck hit her scooter.
Police said traffic normalised around 2pm. Sonawane lived in Ganeshpuri in Bhiwandi taluka with her husband and six-year-old son, said police. Long queues of vehicles stretched for 10km-15km from Versova bridge towards Virar. A vehicle breaking down at Kajupada in Ghodbunder further aggravated the situation. Sonawane, who worked at a private company in Sativali in Vasai East, had bought the scooter in Jan to commute to work. She suffered severe head injuries and was rushed to Tulinj Hospital in Nalasopara, where she was declared dead.