Mumbai: Eight families in Mumbai were plunged into grief and shock after young members of the families died in a road accident on the Ratnagiri-Goa highway early on Wednesday.
Gas cutters used
According to the Ratnagiri police, the control room received a call at around 7:30 a.m. about a Mahindra Xylo ramming into a tree. When their teams reached the spot, they found that the car was mangled. Gas cutters were used to cut the car open, after which the eight occupants were taken to Civil Hospital in Ratnagiri, where seven of them were declared brought-dead, while the eighth victim is under treatment.
“The person driving the vehicle seems to have lost control due to insufficient sleep. We have registered accidental death reports and are conducting inquiries,” said senior inspector K. Vibute, Civil Hospital police station.
The deceased have been identified as Sachin Vishwanath Sawant (31), Prashant Jagannath Gurav (31), Akshay Shankar Kerkar (25), Nihal Kotian (23), Kedar Tondkar (27), Vaibhav Manve (32) and Mayur Belvankar (26), while the injured victim has been identified as Abhishek Kamble (28); all of them are residents of Mumbai, who were on their way to Goa for a picnic.
Suresh Pathak, a relative of Kedar, said, “The eight boys left for Goa at around 11.30 p.m. on Tuesday. They were in Akshay’s car but Prashant was driving when the accident occurred.” The families and neighbours were in a state of denial. The eight youngsters were active in social work and had formed an NGO, Lakshya Foundation, for social work.
Only children
Sachin, Prashant, Kedar and Mayur were the only children of their parents. All, except Sachin, who had married recently, were bachelors. According to neighbours and friends, while Prashant worked as the personal make-up artiste for television actor Jay Bhanushali, Sachin was employed with a private firm, Mayur an events management professional, and Kedar ran a stationery shop in Vile Parle. They said Nihal was a station master with the Mumbai Metro, Akshay a freelance make-up artiste, and Vaibhav was an LIC agent. The sole survivor, Abhishek, is a final-year student of Saathe College.
