Death toll in bus-rickshaw collision in Nashik rises to 26

The death toll in an accident involving a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus and an auto-rickshaw in Nashik district climbed to 26 on Wednesday, the police said. It included 14 men, ten women, and two girls.

More bodies were recovered from the well into which the two vehicles fell after the accident, the police said. A speeding MSRTC bus going from Dhule to Kalwan hit an auto-rickshaw at Meshi Ghat in Deola tehsil of this north Maharashtra district, around 200 km from Mumbai, on Tuesday evening.

According to the police, after colliding with the auto-rickshaw, the bus dragged it along and both the vehicles fell into a roadside well. All the deceased were identified and the process to hand over bodies to the relatives was on, a police official said.

The injured were being treated at hospitals at Umrane, Dewla, and Malegaon in the district. Both the vehicles had been pulled out of the well, the official added.

The deceased included Kalpana (30) and her two-year-old twin daughters, Riddhi and Siddhi. Eight members of the family of Shakeel Mansuri were also among those who died in the accident.

The conductor of the ill-fated bus, Kamal Laxman Raut, resident of Kalwan tehsil, survived. Its driver Prakash Bachhav (55) was killed. The district administration has provided helpline 02592-2228209 at the Dewla rural hospital for the relatives of the deceased and injured.