PUNE: A motorcyclist died while the pillion rider suffered serious injuries after the two-wheeler they were riding on collided head-on with a PMPML bus on the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) route in front of Inorbit Mall on the Ahmednagar Road on Tuesday around 4.30pm.
The Airport police identified the deceased as Vijaykumar Rameshkumar Prajapati (24) from Wagholi. Dhanraj Narayanlal Chaudhary (21) from Chinchwad, was seriously injured and is admitted in a private hospital. His condition is reported to be serious. The deceased and the pillion rider were not wearing helmets.
Inspector (crime) Mangesh Jagtap told TOI, “The PMPML bus reached Sainathanagar in Wadgaonsheri from the PMC and was heading towards Wagholi. The duo on the motorcycle, who were coming from Wagholi, entered the BRTS route and were proceeding towards Phoenix Mall when the rider overtook another vehicle and lost control over the motorcycle. He then collided head-on with the bus.”
Investigating officer of the case Deepak Sanap said that according to the information provided by the passersby, the impact of the collision was such that Prajapati was thrown into the air. He suffered severe head injuries.
“Chaudhary also sustained injuries to his head,” said Sanap.
Prajapati was rushed to Sassoon General hospital but he was proclaimed dead by the doctors before he could be admitted. His body was sent for postmortem and the report is awaited.
“The driver stopped the bus after the accident. We got information about the accident from the hospital at around 7pm. The PMPML bus has been seized and is at Vimmanagar police chowkey,” said Sanap. Prajapati was a timber merchant while his friend Chaudhary runs a plumbing shop, he added. The process of registering an FIR was in progress at the time of going to press.
The construction work of the Pune Metro rail is in progress on the BRTS route between Gunjan Chowk and Phoenix Mall on Ahmednagar Road. The stretch between Sainathnagar and Kharadi Chowk is used as a dedicated BRTS corridor by the buses operated by PMPML.
The issue of private vehicles entering the BRTS routes has been raised frequently and led to accidents in the recent past as well.
