Pics by Rons Bantwal
News Source: IANS

Raigad (Maharashtra), Feb 20: At least 12 people were killed and four injured Friday when their vehicle crashed headlong into a truck at Nagothane in Maharashtra, police said. The victims were going to attend a wedding in Ratnagiri district.

The accident took place at 2.30 a.m. when the Tata Sumo with 16 occupants was going to Khed on the Mumbai-Goa highway.

"Around 2.30 a.m., the Tata Sumo crashed headlong into a truck speeding from the opposite direction. Eleven people were killed on the spot, and one succumbed on the way to the hospital. Another four were seriously injured," a police official said.

Nagothane is about 100 km from Mumbai.

All the victims were from Ghatkopar in northeast Mumbai and were going to attend a wedding in Khed Taluka of Ratnagiri district when the tragedy struck.

As news of the accident spread, people from nearby villages helped in the rescue and relief efforts. Weekend and holiday traffic on the busy and accident-prone Mumbai-Goa highway was not badly affected, the official said.

The impact of the accident was so severe that some of the victims were flung several metres away on both sides of the highway.

The victims were identified as driver Kamlesh Pardhi, 28, Dattaram Hambhir, 38, Vaishali V. Dhebe, 30, Harshvilas Dhebe, 5, Anant Dagdu Jagdale, 35, Prakash Babu Gawandkar, 40, Viinod T. Gawandkar, 32, Ravindra Gangaram Kokre, 40, Mina Ravindra Kokre, 35, Darshand Ravindra Kokre, 12.

Two people - a 50-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man - are yet to be identified and police await their relatives from Mumbai.

The four injured include three minors. They are Roshni D. Hambhir, 4, Ravi Kokre, 10, Swati Dhebe, 10 and Vilas L. Dhebe, 35. The injured have been admitted to Sion Hospital in Mumbai, the official said.

The bodies of the victims - hailing from Khed, but living and working in Mumbai - shall be handed over to their relatives later Friday for the last rites, he added.