A BEST contract bus collided with a metro pillar near Oberoi Mall in Goregaon on Monday evening, injuring a BEST employee and a passenger. The crash occurred while the bus was turning near a traffic signal beneath a flyover, after it brushed against a private car.
The bus was operated by Mateshwari, a contractor servicing the BEST network, and was travelling on route 705 from the Dindoshi depot towards Bhayandar railway station (East). According to the report, the collision took place at around 5 pm near the signal outside Oberoi Mall in Goregaon.
The injured people were identified as BEST employee Rajendra Sonawane, 58, and passenger Mangesh M modelekar, 57. Sonawane suffered a serious head injury, while Modelekar was also injured in the crash. Both were taken to the Trauma Care Hospital in Jogeshwari East for treatment and were later discharged, according to the report.
Following the incident, Kulkarni, an accident inspector from Mateshwari, admitted the two injured people to the hospital. Accident Special Inspector Navale from the western accident department was appointed to assist with the case.
The damaged bus was removed from the location by a BEST towing vehicle and parked outside the Vanrai police station, following instructions from Police Sub-Inspector Rahul Dadas of the Vanrai police station. The police action followed a complaint filed by the driver of the private vehicle involved in the collision.
A case was registered against the bus driver on the basis of that complaint. The report did not specify the sections applied or provide details about the police investigation into the cause of the collision.
The incident adds to concerns surrounding accidents involving BEST buses operated under contract arrangements. The report said the increase in such incidents has led to demands for the withdrawal of contracted bus services, but it did not provide a consolidated count of recent crashes or an official assessment of the safety performance of these operators.
The case also involves a busy urban movement corridor where bus traffic, private vehicles, flyover infrastructure and metro pillars operate in close proximity. The immediate official action recorded in the report was the hospitalisation and subsequent discharge of the injured people, removal of the bus to the police station and registration of the case against the driver.
