The highway police on Tuesday said Monday’s accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway occurred due to over-speeding on the service lane.
Twenty-seven people had died and 28 injured when a tempo had crashed into a stationary bus, which had hit another bus in front of it on Monday. According to the police, the tempo driver, Somnath Padthare, was driving at breakneck speed on the service lane, instead of the three lanes on the Expressway designated for high speed traffic.
“There was no reason for the driver to enter the service lane. Preliminary investigations revealed that he drove less than half-a-kilometre on the service lane before ramming into the bus,” said Vijay Kamble, additional deputy inspector-general, highway police.
Mr Kamble pointed out that 75 to 80 per cent of accidents occur due to human error, as was the case in Monday’s mishap. “Padthare was driving from Ambernath to Kolhapur. Drivers tend to ignore factors like rest and proper maintenance, which is why such accidents occur,” Mr Kamble said.
However, an officer with the Khalapur police said Padthare was claiming he was forced into the service lane by another vehicle. “We’ll find out what happened soon,” R.D. Shinde, Raigad police superintendent said.