At least 17 labourers were killed and 15 others injured when a speeding truck overturned on Pune-Satara highway in western Maharashtra in the early hours on Tuesday, the police said.
The truck, carrying construction labourers from Bijapur district in Karnataka, was going towards Pune when it met with the accident around 4.30 am in Satara, around 250 km from Mumbai, Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil said.
The driver apparently lost control over the wheels at an accident-prone stop near Khambatki ghat. As a result, the vehicle rammed into a barricade and then overturned, he said.
At least 17 labourers died on the spot, while 15 others sustained injuries, he said.
Bogged down by the weight of some construction equipment, it was thrown into a wayside ditch with great force, the impact killing many on board instantly, including the driver, according to a police official.
On being informed, the Khandala police rushed the spot and took all the victims to a nearby hospital, he said.
The police were trying to ascertain the exact reason of the accident, the official said, adding that they suspect the accident occurred due to the driver's lack of concentration as he had been constantly driving and was deprived of sleep.
The bodies were sent for postmortem and the process to identify the deceased was on, the police added.
The police said at least 36 labourers mainly from Bijapur in the adjoining state were bound for work at a construction site at Shirval, near Pune.
This is the second such major accident in less than 24 hours in the country. On Monday, twenty-seven children were among 30 killed when a school bus ferrying them back home plunged into a deep gorge near village Gurchal on the Nurpur-Chamba highway, about 100km from the district headquarters at Dharamsala.
The deceased children were students of Ram Singh Pathania Memorial School, police said.