Vile Parle

Mumbai-Goa Highway

Khanu village

Ratnagiri

Xylo

Shirdi

Group fromwas travelling to Goa when the man behind the wheel lost control, crashed into tree.Abhishek Tambe was on his way to Goa with seven of his friends on Tuesday morning. A few hours later, he became the sole survivor of a horrific tragedy when their car crashed into a tree on the, killing all his friends.The accident occurred at 7.30 am on Tuesday morning, nearin, about 310 km from Mumbai, on the Goa-bound lane of the highway. Thewas travelling at a speed of 140 kmph when the driver lost control and rammed into a tree.Tambe, who was seated on the back seat, was thrown out of the vehicle due to the impact of the collision. Abhishek was rushed to a local hospital where he was declared out of danger and is now being brought back to Mumbai.The deceased have been identified as Prashant Gurav (31), who was driving, Sachin Sawant (31), Akshay Kerkar (24, owner of the car), Nihal Kotiyan (22), Kedar Todanker (26), Vaibhav Manve (32) and Mayur Belkar (27), all of whom lived in Shivaji Housing Society in Vile Parle.All the eight worked together for a local group called Lakshaa in the society and would organise trips to. After organising a trip in December last year for citizens of the society, the group decided to take a vacation of their own in Goa.Superintendent of Police for Highway Security, Rupali Ambure said, “Prima facie, it appears that the person driving the vehicle lost control and veered off the two-lane highway and rammed into a tree. The car was travelling at a high speed when the collision happened, which caused these deaths.” Cops added that the spot was not an accident-prone region.In his statement, Tambe has told the police that they had left Mumbai at about 12 am and had halted once in the night. They were all asleep in the car when the accident occurred.Anand Pathak, a resident of Shivaji Society, said, “As soon as I got a call from the police, I called Prashant as I knew he was driving the car. The call was answered by a policeman who informed me that all of them were dead and we should send their family to the accident site as soon as possible.” The families are in a state of shock. Sawant had gotten married only a year ago. Kotiyan and Belkar were the sole bread winners of their families.Pranay Parabh, a 21-year-old resident of the society, was about to join the eight on their trip to Goa but could not go at the last minute as he did not get leave from work. Parabh said, “I was with them until midnight and then they left from here at about 12.15 am. I had planned to join them but I did not get leave from work which I have just joined.”Initially, they were going to hire two private vehicles as there were about 20 men from the society who wanted to go but a lot of them backed out, after which the group of eight decided to take their own vehicle and go.