A firefighter douses a truck after a tyre burst triggered a blaze on Samruddhi Expressway
Amravati : In the third accident in 11 days on a killer stretch of Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway, two persons were killed early Monday after a truck went up in flames after a tyre burst in Talegaon Dashasar police limits. Truck driver Ikhlas Khan Shahabuddin Khan, 22, resident of Palwal district in Haryana, got trapped inside and was burnt to death. Another occupant, Jahul Khan Ali Khan, 25, also from the same village, died after being tossed under a bridge while trying to wriggle out of the leaping flames. Cleaner Sahib Saeed Khan, 18, however, escaped unhurt. On October 2, seven devotees carrying a Durga idol on a vehicle died in an accident. On October 4, nine labourers were seriously injured after a pick-up van overturned.
The driver lost control and the truck rammed the crash barrier and scraped along the road for some distance. As per police, the truck was transporting cabbage from Nashik to Patna when its front tyre on the driver’s side suddenly burst. The impact and friction ruptured the diesel tank, triggering a fireball. Fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control. Sub-inspector Sudhir Gawande and his patrol team deployed on the expressway, sent an SOS to Talegaon Dashasar police, which rushed to the spot. And Monday’s accident again renewed calls for a review of highway safety, surveillance, emergency response and preventive measures on accident-prone stretches.