Once the team reached there, they assured us of complete safety and I must say they were extremely polite people
BHPian nexus recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Sharing an incident which I think is important for everyone to be aware of. This post is on behalf of my BIL and written by him. Posting it as is without any edits.
Following is the post:
This is an awareness post considering whatever we experienced recently.
- Date: Wednesday 25th October, 2023 , evening 6.30 pm.
- Location: Samruddhi Highway, 20 km before Jalna while coming towards Pune.
Incident: While driving down a slope in a particular patch, we suddenly encountered a group of 7-8 animals supposedly dogs, (however after some thoughts later we suspect those were foxes), barely 50 meters ahead of us. They were totally stationary and did not move an inch as they covered up almost 2 lanes on the right. Since it was a bit of a descending slope, we did not have normal visibility of what was in front of us I had barely 2 seconds to react and the only option I had was to neither move left nor right abruptly, but to just go straight and unfortunately I had to run over 1 of them. Applying brakes the hard way could have caused some other untoward incident which is better not to mention.
This caused quite an impactful noise and we carried on for a few meters completely in shock. As we just started to think about what just happened, we heard a sound coming from the front side of our car and some red indicator blinking on the panel. We then stopped to check what it was. As we stopped aside, we saw the front side bumper was heavily damaged and it was hanging around and had touched the ground. We saw water leaking away from the coolant and spilt on the road. This was a bit of a scary situation and just to be safe, we all moved away from the car up to a few meters. After a few minutes, as we started to regain our senses, we slowly walked towards the car and started to think about what to do next to come out of this situation. It had turned completely dark by this time and it was almost a jungle-like spot. However, we decided to stay calm and called up the Samruddhi Highway helpline control room and they responded quickly and the patrolling team reached the spot in about 20 minutes.
Once the team reached there, they assured us of complete safety and I must say they were extremely polite people which automatically calmed us down. They had certain contacts of nearby mechanics who they said were ready to help with the repair works at any odd hour and that too on the spot if the conditions permitted.
The mechanic guys came later after about 45 minutes, checked the condition of the car and assured us that they would fix it on the spot. It was detected that the radiator to which the coolant water flows had been severely damaged and it was beyond repair. The only option to get out of there was to replace it with a new one. Once this issue was identified, they went back to the nearby Jalna city to get the material and it understandably took about 90 minutes for them to come back to the spot.
But not to worry, as all this while, the highway patrolling vehicle stood firmly behind us till the end. I must say hats off to them, the way they work and the way they stand behind you and especially when they see families, they never leave them alone. These are the real heroes.
Finally, after a long wait of almost 6 hours, half past midnight, the issue was resolved on the spot and we took off and having faced all this trouble, we decided to stay overnight at a hotel in Jalna and then came back from there after starting afresh the next morning.
Awareness: Whoever drives on this highway is advised to watch out for animals especially between Jalna and Mehkar as this is the patch where incidents and even major fatal incidents have occurred due to animals coming in between as mentioned to me by the patrolling guys. Apart from this, as most of us might know, have the tires in good condition and stay alert while driving on this highway. Yes, this highway is certainly a wonder but one only has to be in the right frame of mind and nothing more.
Below is the control room number for Samruddhi Highway and I would suggest keeping this handy in case any help is needed while on this highway: 18002332233
Keyword: Car has an accident on Samruddhi Mahamarg: Highway patrol saves the day