Four injured in accident; spotlight on illegal ferrying by truckers

The police said that the truck overturned because the driver was speeding on a curve,but the accident created a potential for another one with the truck’s fuel tank leaking and diesel dripping along the roadside. There was a fire-fighting unit waiting on the flanks the entire morning,to prevent a flare-up.

The truck driver has been booked under many charges,besides illegal passenger thoroughfare — the truck was overloaded,was passing through inside lanes that have been banned to heavy vehicles,and he was speeding. Further,at the time of the accident it was the cleaner,without a driving licence,who was driving the truck.

Police officers admit that the crime would not have come to light if not for the accident. “We are aware that many trucks do carry passengers. This case came to our notice because of the accident,” said an officer at Lashkar police station.

Manoj Patil,DCP Traffic,said: “This case happened at night. I cannot ask my men to work at nights regularly,as it would jeopardise our day operations. We are short-staffed,and already over-worked,” he said.

He said in the last two months,the traffic police had booked around 40 trucks during the day for carrying passengers. Regional Transport Authority member Baba Shinde said the RTO and the traffic police did conduct occasional drives at night against goods carriers ferrying passengers. “The RTO sanctions only two to three people for every truck to perform some essential activities like loading,unloading,cleaning etc. We will now monitor this route as well,” he said.

For Dutta Shinde,a labourer who was travelling from Solapur with eight other relatives in the truck,it was a chance to save money that went horribly wrong.

The truck driver was charging him only Rs 50 per seat,as against around Rs 150 in an MSRTC bus. Instead,he ended up spending more than Rs 1,000 in hospital bills.

“The truck was going to Turbhe in Navi Mumbai. The driver was passing through the city because two passengers wanted to be dropped off near Sassoon Hospital,” he said.

Shinde said around 3 am in the morning,after the truck reached Hadapsar,the driver decided to take a break. “Several times after the cleaner took the wheel the truck had lurched to its side and we told him to be careful. But he was careless,” he said.