The jeep was heading towards Talegaon Dabhade when the truck loaded with scrap, which was going in the opposite direction collided with it. According to the eye witnesses, the high speed truck went on the wrong side of the road after its driver lost control and dashed against the jeep. The truck driver, who miraculously escaped, fled from the spot leaving his vehicle on the spot after the mishap without bothering to help the injured.

The jeep cart-wheeled inside a trench dug along the road due to the impact of the dash. Its body was virtually reduced to metal pulp. While some of the jeep passengers were thrown out, a few were trapped inside.

The victims, who were flung at a distance of about 100 feet, lay in a pool of blood for nearly 15 minutes till the residents of Nanekarwadi rescued them with the help of some passers by.

Some policemen from the Chakan police station, who joined the rescue work, shifted the victims to the primary health centre in separate vehicles plying on the road.

While eight jeep passengers were proclaimed dead on arrival at the primary health centre, two of the injured were discharged after first aid.

The third victim, a 35-year-old man, whose identity could not be ascertained till late in the evening, was shifted to the Sassoon hospital later in the morning. The hospital sources said he is in a critical condition. He had not regained consciousness till late in the evening, they added.

Among those who died on the spot was the jeep driver, Prahlad Nivrutti Gade (30) of Yelwadi village near Chakan. The identities of the other deceased were ascertained as Rajendra Samadhan Baviskar (26), Maruti Dagadu Parge (76), Sahebrao Sakharam Gundare (40), Jawaharlal Biharilal Pardeshi (50), Bhausaheb Sayaji Parge (25), Jijaram Deoji Damse (28) and Pandurang Dagadu Kale (38). The dead bodies of the deceased were handed over to their relatives in the afternoon after post-mortem at the primary health centre at Chakan.

The injured jeep passengers who were discharged after first aid at the primary health centre at Chakan included Kiran S Gain and Sunil N Bhaisani (both from Chakan).

The preliminary investigations have revealed that the jeep belonged to a resident of Mhalunge village near Chakan. Ten workers of various factories in Talegaon Dabhade had hitched a lift in the jeep at Chakan, police said.