A speeding car crashed into the rear of a tempo on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway near the Missing Link section in the early hours of Friday, triggering a major collision that left one person dead and six others injured.
CCTV footage of the incident has since gone viral on social media, capturing the moment the SUV struck the tempo on the expressway's Missing Link stretch and throwing the tempo in the air.
Visuals from the site showed the SUV reduced to a mangled heap of metal after the impact, which was severe enough to overturn both vehicles.
ALSO READ: Who Is Matin Patel? AIMIM Corporator Arrested For Sheltering Nashik TCS Case Accused Nida Khan
Rescue teams and an MSRDC ambulance reached the spot soon after the crash, with the injured shifted to a nearby hospital while police cleared the accident site.
Police said traffic on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway was not disrupted as a result of the accident.
The crash has renewed concerns over speeding inside the Missing Link tunnel, a stretch of the expressway that has seen a growing number of motorists driving at dangerous speeds despite repeated warnings from highway authorities.
Police said preliminary findings pointed to overspeeding as the primary cause of the collision, with investigations continuing into the exact circumstances of the crash.
The Indian Express reported that the deceased has been identified as Tushar Bhumkar, 35, a resident of Wakad, whose wife had contested the civic body elections as a Congress candidate.
According to the report, the accident occurred around 1.20 a.m. when the SUV, headed towards Mumbai, collided with the tempo from the rear.
Shivaji Pawar, Superintendent of the Highway Safety Patrol, Pune Range, confirmed the sequence of the crash, while police said the car driver has been booked for negligent driving.
Sachin Patil, inspector at the Lonavala city police station, said Bhumkar was seated next to the driver and died in the mishap, while four others in the SUV, along with the driver and cleaner of the tempo, sustained minor injuries and were taken to hospital for treatment.
He added that speeding appeared to be the cause of the accident and that further investigation was underway, the Express reported.
ALSO READ: Licence Cancelled: Tukaram Mundhe-Led FDA Cracks Down on Pune's Inducare Pharma
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.