Pune:In a horrific incident, two toddlers and a man were crushed to death when a speeding dumper mowed nine pavement dwellers here on Monday.
The police said the incident happened around 1 am at Wagholi near the Kesnand Phata when a dumper of a private company from Pune veered onto the footpath and ran over the people, all labourers sleeping in shanties there.
At least three persons, including two minors and another man, were killed instantly while six others were seriously injured in the mishap. The truck driver, identified as Gajanan Totre (26), was arrested after the incident and his medical test was being done to ascertain if he was driving under the influence of alcohol, an official said.
The victims have been identified as: One-year-old Vaibhavi Pawar, her two-year-old brother Vaibhav Pawar, and Vishal Pawar (22). They were all sleeping beside each other when the tragedy hit them. Six others - Janki Pawar (21), Rinisha Pawar (18), Roshan Bhosale (9), Nagesh Pawar (27), Darshan Vairal (18) and Aalisha Pawar (47) - were admitted to the Sassoon General Hospital.
According to locals, around a dozen workers had arrived here from Amravati on Sunday to work as labourers in different construction sites in the region. Local police and officials have launched a probe into the exact causes of the disaster as initial reports suggest that the driver was purportedly in a drunken state, said locals who rushed there to help the victims.
The accident site was an eerie scene with bodies of the victims and injured, blood splattered all around, and the bare belongings, clothes or utensils of the labourers strewn in the vicinity, resembling a war zone.