Mumbai: Two accidents involving six vehicles in the left-hand-side (LHS) tunnel of the Mumbai Coastal Road, followed by a fire, within a span of 15 minutes led to a pile-up and the temporary closure of the tunnel at around 3 am on Friday. The incident resulted in traffic movement in the LHS tunnel being suspended for over an hour. Even as the Coastal Road control room teams were responding to the first accident, which occurred at 2.33 am, and mobilising the police, Fire Brigade and a towing van, a second accident occurred at the same location about 15 minutes later. In the second incident, an SUV rammed into vehicles that had come to a halt following the first accident. The collision also resulted in the SUV catching fire. Meanwhile, the Malabar Hill police have registered a case against the drivers of two cars.According to the Fire Brigade and other officials, the first accident involved two cars, while three other four-wheelers had piled up behind them. At around 2.47 am, a Mahindra XUV 700 rammed into a stationary taxi, which was among the three vehicles involved in the earlier pile-up. Following the collision, the SUV caught fire at around 2.50 am. With traffic congestion building up, the LHS tunnel, which is the northbound carriageway, was closed to traffic at 2.48 am as a precautionary measure to ensure public safety. The control room immediately switched the tunnel’s ventilation fans to manual mode and operated them at full speed. Subsequently, a control room team present at the spot managed to extinguish the fire. Meanwhile, Fire Brigade teams, including a quick response vehicle, reached the location. A towing team later removed all the vehicles involved in the accidents from the tunnel. After the emergency response was completed and the vehicles were cleared, the tunnel was reopened to traffic at 4.08 am. According to officials, traffic was not affected significantly as the incident occurred during the night. A senior police officer said, “An initial accident involving two cars occurred inside the Coastal Road tunnel early on Friday morning. Subsequently, a trailing vehicle collided with the stationary cars, triggering a chain-reaction crash involving a total of six vehicles. All vehicles were cleared.” The Malabar Hill police registered a case against sedan driver Zoheb Hassan and SUV driver Fanil Patel under Sections 281 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 324(4) (mischief) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and Section 184 (dangerous driving) of the Motor Vehicles Act. No injuries were reported in either of the accidents.
