A speeding car hit the wall of a tunnel on the recently inaugurated Coastal Road in Mumbai on Thursday, marking the structure’s first accident since its opening, officials have revealed.
The car collided with the tunnel wall near the Marine Drive exit in south Mumbai at 12:37 pm. An official stated that the car struck the wall and subsequently spun around. Fortunately, there were no injuries, but the incident disrupted traffic on the Coastal Road for a period.
Reason behind the accident
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) stated that the car was traveling at 60 kmph. The driver attributed the loss of control to a “loose” steering wheel, as per the BMC statement.
Both police and BMC officials swiftly responded to the scene, and the damaged car was towed away.
According to the BMC statement, traffic returned to normal after 1:30 pm.
A BMC official said, “While live monitoring CCTV cameras inside Priyadarshini Park Control room, we found that there was some issue inside the tunnel and a vehicle had stopped near CP-5 (Crossing Point) around 12:42 pm.”
The information of the accident was first given by a person who called from the nearest Emergency Call Box around 12:43 pm. Upon receiving the call, an operator at the Local Operation Maintenance Room promptly reviewed CCTV footage and notified their superiors, as stated.
Earlier, the traffic police had reported the accident time as 2:30 pm. They also mentioned that another car collided with the first one from behind shortly after it hit the wall. However, BMC officials contradicted this, stating that no other vehicle was involved in the accident.
An eyewitness informed PTI that she attempted to alert authorities upon witnessing the accident, but was unable to do so due to lack of mobile network inside the tunnel, and the emergency communication system was not easily visible.
(With PTI inputs)