The truck was carrying members of the Shivshakti Mitra Mandal, renowned at the state and national level for its lezim performances, when the mishap took place, around 10.45 am.

The troupe, residents of Kuran Budruk village, was returning home after an all-night performance at the annual festival of Koregaon Bhima village on the Pune-Ahmednagar Road, when the mishap took place.

Most of them were fast asleep when the driver lost control at the wheel on a sharp curve near the temple of Mavlai, the deity of the Kuran Khurd village.The mini truck, which skidded for a distance of about 700 feet, uprooted a milestone, dashed against several boulders lying along the road and rolled down a 50-foot slope before plunging into the Ambi river.

The entire body of the truck was ripped off and its occupants were flung into the gushing water as the vehicle cartwheeled on a steep slope along the road. While the truck was totally submerged into the water, some of the lezim players were trapped under the cement bags it was carrying.

The identities of those killed on the spot were ascertained as Sopan Pratap Kadu and Pappu Babulal Kadu. Among those injured were the mandal president Vinayak Kadu, Govind Kadu, Dhondiba Kadu, Yogesh Kadu, Mohan Kadu, Subhash Kadu, Satish Pasalkar, Suresh Kadu, Atul Kadu, Vivek Bhosale, his brother Vishal, Sopan Chavan, Chandrakant Kadu, Maruti Shinde, Nandakumar Kadu, his brother Chandrakant, Sagar Pasalkar, Ravindra Pasalkar, Maruti Marne, Anurag Marne, Yogesh Paigude and Suresh Gaikwad.

Vinayak Kadu, whose spinal cord has sustained serious injury, has been admitted to Sassoon Hospital in Pune. Others injured were admitted to private hospitals in the nearby localities.

Victims Chandrakant Kadu, his brother Nandakishor and Maruti Shinde recalled, ``About 30 of us had left Kuran Budruk in the hired truck around 8.30 pm yesterday and reached Koregaon Bhima village within three hours. After performing there village all night, we left Koregaon Bhima around 7 am. We did not stop anywhere except for a brief halt at Dandekar Bridge to load 20 cement bags onto the mini truck.''

``I was working in my field, located at a distance of about 100 metres from the spot, at the time the incident took place. The deafening sound of the crash and the cries of the victims were heard in the radius of about a kilometre. I also joined the rescue work when the residents of the Kuran Khurd and Kuran Budruk villages rushed to the spot and started search for victims. Soon we were joined by the police. We searched for the victims for nearly two hours. A State Transport bus, a Maruti Van and some jeeps plying on the road were stopped by the police and pressed into service to rush the injured to hospital,'' recalled Jayram Shripati Thakar, a farmer residing in Kuran Khurd village.

``I was going to Rule village from Panshet along with Assistant Sub Inspector B A Pawar and constables S S Bhagat, S L Jangam and H B Ghadge, when we noticed the villagers carrying out the rescue work. They were facing problems in finding vehicles to rush the victims to hospital so we stopped the vehicles passing on the road and shifted the victims,'' said PSI Ghanashyam Palande from Velha Police Station which covers the area under its jurisdiction.

R Vishvambhar, a medical officer from the Janseva Foundation's Rural Hospital at Ambhi village and Anandnagar based Jagtap Hospital's medical officer Avinash Kadam said, some of the injured were admitted to their hospitals while the others were advised to go to bigger and better-equipped hospitals.

``At least six patients I checked were critically injured and had no pulse. Four had suffered deep head injuries while the others had suffered some external and internal injuries as well,'' Kadam said.

A five-member team of firemen from Erandvane Fire Station, led by Station Officer Suresh Sagvekar, carried out a search operation from 12.30 pm to 6 pm. However, no more victims were found. The work of pulling out the tempo with the help of cranes was on till late in the evening.

Death trap
Notching up at least two minor accidents every month, the narrow stretch of the busy Panshet road near Mavlai temple at Kuran Khurd is a virtual death trap.

It is a blind turn atop a steep 50-foot slope ending in the depths of the Ambi river to the right, and a steep cliff face to the left. The non existence of safety railings or a stone wall turns this spot into an accident-prone zone.The drivers coming to Pune are usually tempted to speed up on the straight and narrow stretch of the road between the Kuran Khurd village and this spot, while vehicles heading the other way also speed up to climb the steep slope which ends where the turn begins.

All these factors together cause at least two to three minoraccidents at the spot, says Medical Officer from the Janseva Foundation's Rural Hospital at Ambhi R Vishvambhar. The quantum of traffic on the road has increased considerably during the last decade, ever since Panshet and Varasgaon dams emerged as tourist spots, says resident of Kuran Khurd, Jayram Thakar. However, he claimed, the width of the road has not increased an inch. Moreover, many revellers drive recklessly in inebriated conditions posing a major danger, he added.