Overview
- Early Friday, a truck rear‑ended a Tata Ace/Bolero pickup near Chainage 97 by Dhamangaon on the Nagpur–Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway, killing multiple people and injuring roughly 19–21 passengers.
- The pickup was carrying a temple group returning from Shegaon with a Goddess Durga idol for Navratri, which explains the large number of devotees in a small vehicle.
- Local residents and Dhamangaon Railway police carried out initial rescues; most wounded were taken to Dhamangaon Rural Hospital and several were later referred to higher‑care facilities in Wardha and Nagpur.
- Reports give differing tolls—police statements first said five dead and 21 injured while some hospitals and later accounts raised the fatality count to seven—and several injured remain in critical condition as investigators examine the cause.
- The crash has renewed scrutiny of Samruddhi Mahamarg safety after recent years of frequent deadly accidents, with published counts citing hundreds of crashes and deaths and common contributing factors listed as high speed, driver fatigue and collisions with heavy vehicles.