7 of family, including 3 kids killed as car crashes into tree near Pune

Seven members of a family including three children who were headed for the Mumbai airport were killed when their car rammed into a tree at high speed in Satara district, about 120 km east of Pune shortly after midnight, police said.

The deceased were identified as Nizamuddin Abdulnabi Soudagar (69), his wife Safura Nizamuddin Saudagar (58), their son Mansuf Soudagar (40), daughter-in-law Nafisa Soudagar (38) and three grandchildren, Gulnaar Soudagar (4) Taiba Soudagar (6) and Ahmed Raza Soudagar (2) - all residents of Madihal in Karnataka’s Dharwad. The accident on the Bengaluru-Mumbai highway took place at 12:30 am Wednesday.

The family was travelling in a multi-purpose utility vehicle (MUV) registered in Karnataka in the name of Mansuf Soudagar.

A family of flower sellers, the elder Soudagar couple was scheduled to fly out to Saudi Arabia to perform Haj and the rest of the family was going with them to see them off.

The car was being driven by Shahbaz Bhandari, a resident of Dharwad. Bhandari, aged 30, suffered a serious head injury and is undergoing treatment at Satara Civil Hospital.

Bhandari and six-year-old Taiba were pulled out alive from the wreckage of the car which was completely destroyed. However, the child did not survive.

Though the driver gained consciousness by Wednesday afternoon, the police are yet to speak with him to find out the cause of the accident that killed the family of flower sellers.

The car hit trees along the national highway stretch at Kashil village in Satara. While Mansuf was sitting in the front passenger seat, his parents were sitting in the middle row along with their youngest child. Mansuf’s wife was in the back with their two daughters.

Police said the site of the accident was grisly.

“The young woman’s body was hanging out of the window when we found the wreck. The youngest child was crushed under the weight of his grandmother who must have been carrying him while he slept,” said assistant police inspector Chandrakant Mali of Borgaon police station.

“The vehicle must have been speeding at 130 kmph to 140 kmph. Mansuf’s body was so mangled that parts of it were stuck in the wreckage even as the air bag had deployed,” he added.

The bodies were shifted to Public Health Centre in Nagthane, 11km from the accident spot. A post mortem was performed on the remains before handing them over to family members.

A local man who helped the police in the rescue operation said part of the tree embedded itself in the car after the collision.

“We tied the rear of the car to another tree and then pulled the tree out. We spent at least six hours to complete the process. The road is in a pathetic condition,” said 23-year-old Sohail Sutar, who helped the police get a crane and pull the victims out.