Eight Killed, 13 Hurt as Out-of-Control Truck Triggers Fiery Multi-Vehicle Crash on Pune–Bengaluru Highway
Eight people lost their lives and around 13 others sustained injuries on Thursday evening after a high-speed truck rammed into several vehicles in the Navale Bridge stretch of the Katraj–Dehu Road Bypass on the Pune–Bengaluru Highway, officials said.
Police stated that the truck, travelling toward Mumbai from Satara, appeared to have suffered a brake malfunction while descending the Navale Bridge slope.
The driver reportedly lost control around 5:30 pm, leading the vehicle to crash into multiple automobiles in seconds.
Following distress calls, teams from Pune City Police and the Pune Fire Brigade rushed to the site.
Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar arrived shortly afterward to supervise the rescue and investigation.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Sambhaji Kadam said the impact was so severe that one of the cars became trapped between the truck and a container, resulting in a massive blaze.
Eight fire tenders, rescue vehicles, and water tankers were deployed to bring the flames under control.
According to the police, five occupants of the car and two persons in the truck—including the driver and the cleaner—were charred to death. Their bodies were completely burned.
Pune Fire Brigade chief Devendra Potphode said firefighters encountered “an inferno-level fire” upon arrival.
Their immediate focus was to extinguish the flames before attempting to retrieve the victims. He added that the truck was heavily loaded with iron rods and scrap metal, complicating the rescue.
The gutted car is believed to have been fitted with a CNG kit, which may have exploded during the fire.
“Two women and a toddler, barely two years old, were in the back seat of the car. Two men were in the front.
Two individuals were inside the truck. Extracting the burned victims from the crushed vehicles was extremely challenging,” Potphode stated.
The bodies were transported to Sassoon General Hospital for autopsy, and efforts are underway to identify all victims.
Police have begun an inquiry to determine the precise cause of the accident and have initiated FIR procedures at Sinhagad Road Police Station.
The crash triggered fear and major traffic snarls in the area. At least three vehicles caught fire in the incident.
Emergency teams worked to clear the wreckage while the injured were shifted to hospitals nearby.
Traffic DCP Himmat Jadhav issued an advisory restricting vehicle movement on the lane from Satara toward Mumbai. Motorists were urged to avoid the route for several hours.
Vehicles were redirected through the old Katraj Ghat as an alternative.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed grief on X, calling the accident “deeply tragic and heartbreaking.”
He announced a financial aid of ₹5 lakh for the families of those who died in the crash.
‘We heard them screaming’
Local shopkeeper Sanjay Solanki recounted witnessing the horrifying moment. “I ran to the spot immediately.
I could hear people trapped in the truck and the car shouting for help, but the fire spread so fast—there was nothing I could do,” he said.
Another resident, Sarang Nawale, said he saw the mangled car squeezed between the truck and the container. “The vehicle was engulfed in flames. Police and firefighters tried their best, but some people just couldn’t be saved,” he added.
A deadly ‘black spot’ with a grim track record
Navale Bridge in Narhe, along with the adjoining ‘Selfie Point,’ is marked as a “black spot” under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ iRAD database.
A black spot refers to a 500-metre stretch where at least five serious or fatal crashes have occurred within three years.
The area has seen repeated tragedies. In November 2022, a major crash occurred here when a truck ploughed into 48 vehicles, injuring around 20 people. In October 2023, four—including two minors—died when a goods truck caught fire after a collision.
Identities of victims
The eight deceased include:
- Swati Santosh Navalkar (37) of Dhayari Phata
- Her parents: Shanta Dattatraya Dabhade (54) and Dattatraya Chandrakant Dabhade (58) of Satyasai Apartment, Dhayari Phata
- Mokshita Hemkumar Reddy (3) of Lakshmi Chowk, Chikhali
- Car driver Dhananjay Koli (30) of Sonawane Wasti, Chikhali, native of Kolhapur
- Rohit Dnyaneshwar Kadam (25) of Khandala, Satara
Efforts are on to identify the truck driver and cleaner who also perished in the blaze.
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