At least 14 pilgrims including four women were killed and around six more grievously injured after the car they were travelling in collided head on with a container truck on the Solapur-Aurangabad highway in Chorakhali village, Osmanabad district on Tuesday night.
There was no ambulance to rush the victims to the hospital and they were carried in a State Transport bus and private vehicles to Osmanabad’s Civil Hospital, which is 30 km away.
According to an official from the Yermala police station, the accident took place at around 8.15 pm on the national highway no. 211 better known as the Solapur-Aurangabad highway. The private container was moving towards Solapur, while the car was moving towards Aurangabad.
“The accident took place on a curve. Both vehicles were speeding while taking the turn. It’s not that a motorist cannot see a car coming from the opposite end but the container’s driver was driving much above the speed limit,” said sub-inspector Vishwanath Barkul of Yermala police station. Soon after the collision, the driver of the container fled from the spot to escape the mob fury. Attempts are being made to trace him.
The victims are all poor villagers hailing from Uplae village in Kalamb taluka and from Sumba village in Bhoom taluka both in the Osmanabad district of Maharashtra.
They were returning home after a pilgrimage to Turjapur in Solapur.
The Maharashtra government on a trial basis had recently started the use of special ambulances to provide immediate medical attention to the victims within an hour of the accident.
But, it is still has to reach the rural parts of Maharashtra.