Overview
- A Toyota Fortuner travelling from Pune hit a vegetable-laden tempo inside the Missing Link tunnel early on Friday, Aug. 7, causing both vehicles to overturn and killing 35-year-old Tushar Vaman Bhumkar.
- Lonavala City Police registered an FIR naming the Fortuner driver and have since booked the tempo driver for allegedly violating a May–October ban on goods vehicles on the Connecting Link.
- Police say preliminary CCTV evidence points to high speed and a misjudged overtaking that led the SUV to lose control, and investigators are now examining vehicle speed and braking data to confirm causes.
- The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation and highway police announced stepped-up enforcement, including plans to install more than 50 automated speed-detection cameras across the tunnel stretch and special drives to stop illegal heavy vehicles.
- The crash is the first fatality on the new Connecting Link and has focused attention on tunnel rules, signage, CCTV monitoring and whether enforcement gaps allowed a restricted goods tempo onto the route, with legal outcomes still pending.