Police probing if a truck was involved in Cyrus Mistry accident

MUMBAI: Despite repeated reminders and awareness campaigns, truckers on highways are using the middle or outer lanes while driving. On highways or expressways, heavy vehicles are supposed to keep to the left and use middle or the lane on the right only to overtake. Lighter or smaller vehicles like cars and SUVs should ideally have right of way for middle and outer lanes.
However, this discipline is nowhere visible. Highly placed sources said police are even probing the probability of a truck being involved in the accident in which two people, including ex-Tata Sons chief Cyrus Mistry, were killed. It is probable, they said, that a heavy vehicle may have veered to the right on Charoti toll naka stretch, prompting the Mercedes SUV driven by Anahita Pandole to try and overtake from the left at high speed. Sources with the state government’s infrastructure arm said the sudden narrowing of lanes over the bridge may have caught Pandole unawares at this point. She could have misjudged the width of the road and hit the concrete railing on the side on the left.
Some weeks back, Vinayak Mete, a Maratha leader, died on the Mumbai-Pune expressway when the driver of his SUV rammed into a multi-axle container truck in an attempt to overtake it. The truck was veering from the middle lane to outer one.
Nitin Dossa, chairman of the Western India Automobile Association, said lane indiscipline should be dealt with stringent implementation of fines so that no trucker dares to drive at high speed on the right side on highways. “Police should detain them instead of just slapping fines. They should be forced to undergo training before they are released from police stations,” he said.