Mumbai: At least 26 passengers were killed and another 32 injured when a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus collided with an autorickshaw and both the vehicles fell into a well near Malegaon in Maharashtra's Nashik District on Tuesday, officials said.
The incident occurred on Tuesday evening on the busy Malegaon-Deola Road, said an official of Nashik Police Control.
The speeding state transport (ST) bus, packed with passengers, crashed into the autorickshaw at Meshi Phata on the Malegaon-Deola Road in the North Maharashtra district, around 200km from Mumbai.
The impact of the collision was so severe that the bus dragged the auto-rickshaw along with it and both the vehicles fell into a roadside well, an official said.
The MSRTC bus was on its way to Kalwan in Nashik from the adjoining Dhule district, while the autorickshaw was coming from opposite direction, the Nashik police official said.
The bus has been pulled out of the well, police said.
Meanwhile, the MSRTC, in a release late in the evening, said the bus driver was prima facie responsible for the devastating crash.
It was not yet known if the bus driver was among the deceased.
"It seems the bus driver, P S Bachhav, from Kalwan depot, was prima facie responsible for the accident, said the release.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to kin of each deceased.
Transport Minister and MSRTC chairman Anil Parab termed the accident as unfortunate. He said the MSRTC will bear the entire cost of treatment of the injured people.
The bus was carrying around 40 passengers while the autorickshaw had an unknown number of riders.
The bid to identify the victims is on.
(With PTI inputs)
