PERNEM
A woman and her toddler were killed while her husband, their other child and their maid were injured when their car and a truck collided with each other on the NH66 near the Government High School at Torsem on Tuesday.
The incident took place as a family from Pune was travelling to Goa by car. A truck carrying fish and the car collided with each other at about 12 noon, killing, Apurva Gundechya and her one-and-half year old son, Avyan, on the spot, while injuring her husband, Piyush, their daughter Mayra and their maid Nikita.
The police and fire service teams rushed to the site and the occupants were removed from the mangled vehicle.
The injured were shifted to the North Goa District Hospital at Mapusa, while the maid was later shifted to Goa Medical College at Bambolim.
The incident sparked off anger among locals, who blamed authorities for failing to place signboards regarding the road repair work on the national highway. They claimed that several mishaps have taken place ever since the road repair work began.
“The contractor has not taken due precautions while carrying out repairs on the highway,” said former ZP member Suryakant Toraskar.
“The government must deploy traffic police round the clock till the completion of the road repair work,” he said.
Some time ago, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant along with then deputy chief minister Babu Ajgaonkar, then PWD minister Deepak Pauskar and some officers had surveyed the road before assembly elections and ordered the contractor to do road-widening work and to put sign boards cautioning motorists about the repair work.
