Amravati : In the third accident in 11 days on a killer stretch of Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway , two persons were killed early Monday after a truck went up in flames after a tyre burst in Talegaon Dashasar police limits.




As per police, the truck was transporting cabbage from Nashik to Patna when its front tyre on the driver’s side suddenly burst. The driver lost control and the truck rammed the crash barrier and scraped along the road for some distance. The impact and friction ruptured the diesel tank, triggering a fireball.




Truck driver Ikhlas Khan Shahabuddin Khan, 22, resident of Palwal district in Haryana, got trapped inside and was burnt to death. Another occupant, Jahul Khan Ali Khan, 25, also from the same village, died after being tossed under a bridge while trying to wriggle out of the leaping flames. Cleaner Sahib Saeed Khan, 18, however, escaped unhurt.




Fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control. Sub-inspector Sudhir Gawande and his patrol team deployed on the expressway, sent an SOS to Talegaon Dashasar police, which rushed to the spot.




The bodies were sent to the rural hospital at Dhamangaon Railway for autopsy. The wrecked truck was later removed to the roadside with a crane, after which traffic on the expressway was restored.




The tragedy once again raised safety concerns on Samruddhi Expressway in Dhamangaon Railway tehsil.




On October 2, seven devotees carrying a Durga idol on a vehicle died in an accident. On October 4, nine labourers were seriously injured after a pick-up van overturned. And Monday’s accident again renewed calls for a review of highway safety, surveillance, emergency response and preventive measures on accident-prone stretches.