Maha: 3 members of family killed in car-tanker collision in Palghar

Palghar (Maharashtra) : Three persons from a five-member family from Pune were killed on the spot after their car rammed into a tanker on a steep turn on the Mendhwat Ghat on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway, the police said here on Thursday.

According to Inspector Namdev Bandgar from Kasa police station, the crash took place at around 2.45 p.m. when the car was speeding towards Gujarat in the hilly region.

At a steep turn in the Mendhwan Ghat region, the car driver, Milind Vaidya (43), apparently lost control, skidded on the bend and rammed into an oncoming tanker truck coming from Mumbai on the opposite lane.

Three passengers, Harshad Godbole (42), his daughter Anandi Godbole (5), and his brother-in-law Milind Vaidya, who was at the wheel, perished on the spot while their vehicle was badly crushed due to the powerful impact.

The injured have been identified as Harshada Godbole (37) and her son Advait Godbole (12), who have been admitted to a nearby hospital where their condition is stated to be ‘stable’, said Bandgar.

The crash resulted in a massive traffic jam for several kilometres on both arms of the highway, which the police and highway authorities managed to clear after a couple of hours. Bandgar said that the exact cause of the accident is not clear yet.

Locals claimed that the Mendhwan Ghat stretch on the highway is treacherous with regular accidents getting reported from here, but the concerned authorities have not taken measures to make it safe for the inter-state heavy traffic plying here.

The Mendhwan Ghat is around 15 km on the same highway stretch where former Tata Group head Cyrus P. Mistry was killed in a car accident on September 4, 2022.