Pune: A Night of Horror in Wagholi – Lives Lost, Survivors Haunted by Narrow Escape

Wagholi, 23rd December 2024: A fatal accident claimed three lives earlier today in Pune’s Wagholi, where a drunk dumper driver lost control and crashed onto a footpath. Although the incident was devastating, eyewitnesses noted that it could have been far worse. They claimed that if the dumper had continued another 10–12 feet, it could have caused a larger tragedy, leaving many more dead or injured. The harrowing incident has left the community traumatized.

Around 1 AM, as people slept on the footpath near Kesnand Phata, the out-of-control dumper ran over nine people, killing three—two toddlers and one adult—and injuring six others. Reports reveal that nearly 50 labourers were sleeping in the vicinity. If the dumper had not stopped, it could have been a massacre similar to the recent Kurla accident in Mumbai, where a Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) bus killed seven people and injured more than 40.

An eyewitness shared, “If the dumper had come 10 to 12 feet further into the open, we too would have been crushed to death. The screams from the night still echo in my ears.” Another witness, Raju Jadhav, described his close call: “I was sleeping just one foot away from where the dumper stopped. It crashed with all our belongings. I was stuck between the dumper and the scattered items. People I know pulled me out. I suffered a cut to my ear and a bruise to my back.” Jadhav, a scrap collector who moved to Wagholi four months ago, narrowly escaped with minor injuries.

The dumper veered off the road, crashing through the footpath and into an area prepared for a Vada Pav Cart. It then struck a tree and some fallen stones, which finally stopped its deadly momentum. This fortunate sequence of events prevented what could have been an even larger catastrophe.