Day after 28th birthday, Mumbai woman crushed to death in Metro trailer mishap

MUMBAI: Just a day after she celebrated her 28th birthday, an Andheri woman was killed in a freak mishap on the Western Express Highway around 6am on Saturday. A trolley connected to a trailer (a puller axle truck) detached and veered out of control when a locking pin broke, and knocked down the woman, Falguni Patel, and her cousin Tulsi , who were standing on the kerb. The incident took place in Andheri (E) as the south-bound trailer was returning from a Metro 2A site.


After the trolley knocked down Falguni and Tulsi, it hit two other people before ramming into a stationary auto, a taxi and then smashing into a Metro pillar. Falguni’s body was completely crushed under the weight of the metal and wedged amid the mangled heap, and had to be extricated.
Woman dead in mishap was family’s sole breadwinner

Andheri resident Falguni Patel who died in a tragic accident a day after celebrating her 28th birthday was waiting at Gundavli with her cousin Tulsi when the accident took place.

Tulsi injured a leg, while the other two—an autorickshaw driver and a taxi driver--sustained minor injuries. Their vehicles were damaged. The driver of the trailer, Vinod Yadav, fled the spot, abandoning the vehicle. Deputy commissioner of police Maheshwar Reddy said Yadav has been booked for negligence and police are looking for him.

Several cranes had to be deployed to lift the trolley. “We had to lift Falguni’s smashed body from beneath...” a relative said, haltingly. “We are unable to get that scene out of our minds.”

At the civic-run Cooper Hospital, Falguni’s friends and relatives rallied around her family. Speaking in hushed tones, her friends recalled how much fun Falguni had had during her birthday party just a day earlier. Falguni was the sole breadwinner of her family. “She worked for a private firm at Bandra-Kurla Complex,” said a relative, adding that Falguni also worked as caterer at small functions to supplement the family’s income.

On the fateful morning, Falguni had borrowed a friend’s two-wheeler to go to the highway with Tulsi to pick up a parcel that was coming from Gujarat. The parcel was arriving by a bus that was to pass that way around the time. “The parcel contained a saree that Falguni wanted her mother to wear at her brother’s wedding.

MMRDA, the agency that is handling Metro construction work, has constituted a three-member committee to probe the matter and has set a deadline of two days for its completion. The contractor will be penalised for negligence and damage caused. MMRDA said the accident damaged a pier of metro 7. Heavy traffic jam was reported on the highway after the accident.

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