According to the police the accident could have been much worse but for the relatively less number of commuters in the early hours. According to them the accident occurred when the brakes of an inter-state truck failed and it skidded for nearly 50 metres before it ploughed into a six-seater rickshaw starting a chain of accidents that finally saw two Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) buses, a cycle, a moped and a garbage dumper smashed in the aftermath.

The truck, with a Harayana registration (HR 38/6773), was coming from Katraj when it spun out of control and ploughed into a six-seater. Pushed forward by the impact the six-seater ran into a cyclist, forcing a PMT bus to swerve and hit a autorickshaw.

The macabre proceedings continued as the autorickshaw hit a moped killing the rider, Deepali Vinayak Padalkar (21) a resident of Mandar Villa in Dhankawadi. In the meantime the accident was further compounded when the chaos on the road led to a garbage dumper smash into a wall, hitting another PMT bus on the way.

The commuters had a miraculous escape, considering the magnitude of the accident. According to the Sahakarnagar police the injured, Bhanudas Nawle (44), Hanumant Mahimuni (25), Mushtaq Ansari (22), Javed Ansari (25), Sambhaji Kondiba Khopde, Pradeep Annasaheb Ankare (22), Ganesh Mahadeo Vakte (30), Suresh Patil (38), Shyam Singh Bodhan Singh and driver of the truck, Ranvijay Singh Pawar Thakur, were rushed to Bharati Hospital. Later the police shifted Ankade to Sassoon Hospital.

Among the injured, the Ansaris, residents of Santosh Nagar, had the luckiest escape of all as they were the most exposed in the accident. Riding the cycle they were moving toward the city when they saw the heavy vehicles skidding toward them. Patil was the driver of one of the PMT buses smashed in the accident. The others Nawale, Mahamuni were in the six-seater while Vakte was the driver of the garbage dumper that smashed into the wall.

Traffic was disrupted for a few hours before the cranes moved in to clear the smashed vehicles. The police have arrested truck driver, Thakur, a resident of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. The Sahakarnagar police have estimated the damage to be totalling to Rs 1,25, 900.