Hyderabad couple dies as car hits truck speeding on wrong side in Maharashtra

CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR: A couple from Hyderabad were killed after their car collided with a hywa truck travelling in the wrong direction on the Dhule-Solapur National Highway 211, near Wadigodri of Jalna's Ambad tehsil, late on Sunday night. While Madhuri Gadde (42) and Ramu Gadde (48) lost their lives, their daughters, Anusha (17) and Meghna (13), suffered injuries. The Gadde couple's relatives who were also in the car — Nageshwar Gadda (43), his wife Shrivani Boba (42), and their seven-year-old daughter — were also injured. The victims' relatives travelled to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar upon receiving news of the accident. On Monday evening, Ram Babu Rimalpudi, from Vijaynagar, filed a complaint at the Ambad police station, leading to charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the truck driver. The family was en route to the Shirdi temple when the accident occurred. The collision was so severe that rescue teams required an excavator to clear the hywa truck before extracting the damaged car to reach the injured occupants. Zafar Shaikh, a former corporator from Sambhajinagar, who was passing by from Beed, assisted with the rescue efforts and transported the injured to the Govt Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Ambad SDPO Vishal Khambe told TOI, "The preliminary probe has revealed the truck had been hired to lift silt from a water body in Dongaon, dumping it at a nearby farm. As the cut on the road divider was about 500m away, the driver, either to save fuel or to make more trips, opted for a shortcut, which involved going the wrong way on the national highway. We have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the heavy vehicle's driver."While the man died instantly, his wife passed away while being taken to the hospital. The remaining injured people are under treatment at the GMCH in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The accident caused a temporary traffic disruption on the national highway, requiring two hours to restore normal vehicular flow. The authorities have initiated a search operation for the truck driver, who fled the scene after the accident.