Raigad, Nov 8 (IANS): In a freak mishap, a Republican Party of India (A) worker and two of his cousins were killed when their SUV plunged off a bridge and crashed onto a moving goods train, police said here on Wednesday.

The accident happened on Tuesday.

The SUV carrying the RPI activist, Dharmanand Gaikwad, 40, who was also a journalist, and his kin Nitin Jadhav, 48 and Mangesh Jadhav, 46, was speeding towards Neral town on the Mumbai-Panvel Road when the accident took place around 4 a.m.

An official said that en route, the car apparently lost control and rammed into a highway barricade, smashing it before hurtling down onto the moving goods train passing below the bridge on the single-line freight route between the Panvel-Karjat stations.

The impact of the fall was so strong that it snapped the coupling between two coaches and hit the railway tracks.

Following the tragedy, the Central Railway services on the Panvel-Karjat section were suspended for nearly four hours, and at least one long-distance train was diverted.

Meanwhile RPI(A) President and Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale condoled the demise of his party colleagues and demanded a probe into the tragedy.