By Shawn Henry 
Chaos erupted on one of India’s busiest highways when a runaway trailer truck turned into a metal monster, plowing through over a dozen vehicles in a horrifying domino effect. Eight lives were snuffed out in an instant, with at least 20 more left battered and burning under the dusk sky.
The stretch between Bhumkar and Navale bridges on the Pune-Bengaluru route—a notorious hotspot for bumper-to-bumper traffic and treacherous slopes—became a graveyard of twisted wreckage Thursday evening. Witnesses say the truck, hurtling downhill toward Mumbai, went rogue when its brakes failed. No stopping, no mercy. By the time it smashed into its 13th victim, momentum had turned it into a battering ram of destruction.
One car never stood a chance. Wedged between the out-of-control behemoth and another heavy vehicle, it crumpled like tin foil before bursting into flames. Two men, two women, a toddler—gone. Just like that. The truck’s own driver and passenger didn’t make it either, their fate sealed the second those brakes gave out. Burn victims screamed as rescue teams fought through choking smoke, the stench of melted metal and gasoline hanging thick in the air.
Pune’s emergency responders raced to the nightmare, but this wasn’t some routine fender-bender. That shattered car ran on CNG, turning it into a ticking firebomb. Firefighters clawed at the wreckage, cursing under their breath as they pulled bodies from what used to be vehicles.
Survivors, shell-shocked and bleeding, vanished into ambulances while cops rerouted traffic for hours. Social media lit up with grim updates from officials—empty apologies, hollow promises of justice for the dead. Now the real question lingers: how did one truck’s mechanical tantrum spiral into this massacre? The highway may reopen, but that stench of scorched rubber and regret isn’t fading anytime soon.
Source/Photo via Pune Municipal Corporation