Three others travelling in the ill-fated jeep (MH-16 E 210) who received serious injuries have been admitted to the civil hospital in Ahmednagar. The jeep driver is among the three who have been hospitalised.

The mishap took place around 2.10 am near Nepti Naka point between Nimbalak and Ahmednagar railway stations.

Such was the impact of the collision that eight persons died on the spot and three others succumbed while being rushed to hospital.

All the 14 passengers in the jeep hailed from Eknathwadi village of Pathardi taluka in Ahmednagar district. They were all sugarcane harvesters and were returning home late in the night after the elections of the Vighnahar Cooperative Sugar factory at Junnar.

The police said the gates at the crossing have been closed permanently as work of a railway overbridge is in progress. A gateman however was posted there to alert people if a train was approaching.

Police said that the jeep driver tried to cross the railway line through a transitory road near the gate. He did not see the train coming from the other direction and while crossing the line, the wheels of the jeep got stuck in the rails. The gateman shouted at the driver to prevent him from driving on to the railway line but his appeal was ignored by the jeep driver.

The 7384 Up Maharashtra Express which came at full speed dashed against the vehicle killing eight persons on the spot. The cattle-guard of the engine was damaged in the mishap.

Superintendent of the Pune railway police Madhav Karve said that some policemen of the Tofkhana police station were the first to reach the spot after they received information of the mishap nearly an hour after it had occurred. The jeep was reduced to a metal heap because of the impact of the collision and it was a herculean task for the policemen to extricate the injured from it.

Nine persons of the Khedkar family died in the ghastly mishap. The deceased were identified as Raghunath Bhima Khedkar (42), Maruti Khedkar (30), Adinath Khedkar (45), Babu Kisan Khedkar (45), Bappaji Trimbak Khedkar (55), Dinkar Bapu Khedkar (40), Kakasaheb Maruti Khedkar (28), Sampat Nana Khedkar (25), Bhagwat Narayan Khedkar (55), Shankar Bapu Ware, and Datta Shivaji Sonwar (18).

The injured who have been admitted to the civil hospital in Ahmednagar are Babasaheb Pappaji Khedkar (30), Pandharinath Hiraji Khedkar (62), and the jeep driver Mahadev Tulshiram Sol (30), a resident of Mith Sangvi of Pathardi taluka.

The railway gateman Vinayak Ramchandra Raut reported the mishap to the railway authorities in Ahmednagar.

The express train which was late by an hour because of the mishap proceeded further after another engine was brought in.

A railway overbridge is being constructed at the Nepti Naka point and the road that crosses the railway line. Since last one year the road has been closed and the traffic had been diverted towards a link road near Kedgaon. However despite the risk involved, vehicle owners continued to use the road which had been closed for traffic.