Injured woman dies in ambulance after spending hours stuck in traffic on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway
"She could have been saved if the ambulance had managed to reach hospital 30 minutes earlier," her husband said, narrating the journey through the heavy traffic and pothole-ridden road on July 31.
Palghar MP Hemant Savara demanded compensation for families of people who died in accidents on the highway or in ambulances stuck in traffic. He asked for a technical audit of the highway, saying it had started deteriorating in its very first monsoon despite an elaborate, Rs 600 crore white-topping exercise.
He blamed substandard material and said he had given a letter stating his demands to Union minister for highways Nitin Gadkari during the monsoon session at the end of July.
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An official from the Kelva police station confirmed the death.
The victim, Chhaaya Purav, had gone to the school in Saphala for a function and was watching a large tree being chopped on the premises.
"She was at a distance and watching like others present there, but in a cruel twist of fate, the huge tree unexpectedly fell on her, inflicting severe head and rib injuries to her," a resident, Arun Patil, said.
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She was taken to a local hospital, but due to her critical condition she was later referred to Hinduja hospital in Mumbai, about 100 km away.
Her husband, Kaushik, accompanied her in the ambulance, which departed around 3 pm. An anaesthetic was administered to the victim to manage her pain.
The ambulance got stuck in the traffic jam on NH-48, said her family. By 6 pm, the vehicle had barely reached the halfway point. As the effect of the anaesthetic wore off, Purav's suffering intensified.
"I watched her endure unbearable agony for four hours," her husband said, describing how the gridlock and pothole-ridden road exacerbated her pain.
"She kept pleading for help, but we were trapped as vehicles driving against the traffic made matters worse," he said.
In a desperate attempt to save her, the ambulance driver diverted the vehicle to Orbit Hospital in Mira Road. Purav was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital, said Kaushik.
Residents of the area in Mumbai where Purav resided mourned her death, with large hoardings put up to pay homage to her.
In his letter to Union minister Gadkari, MP Savara said the NH48 Ghodbunder-Talasari stretch, which is in his constituency, has developed large potholes making it extremely dangerous and uncomfortable for the motorists.
"I have also demanded compensation for the people who have died on this highway during the white topping construction activity.
People have died on this NH-48 due to potholes or while their ambulance got stuck in traffic for hours or due to the poor management of the contractor doing this white topping activity," he said.
The white-topping activity on NH-48 commenced in Dec 2023 with a budget of around Rs 600 crore and was planned to ease travel as the national highway sees some of the heaviest intra-state traffic in the country.
"Ever since the work commenced, motorists have faced traffic congestion for hours, fatal accidents and lack of empathy from the govt and NHAI and the contractor," said Harban Singh Nanade, a highway transport activist.
Nanade said that even on Raksha Bandhan, the Ghodbunder Road repairs continued, and it took families five to six hours to travel a distance of eight to nine kilometres.
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