Mumbai-Goa highway bridge collapse: The men who watched the horror unfold

Pune: Sameer Kumar had just finished tucking into his dinner at a dhaba on the Goa-Mumbai highway late on Tuesday and was walking back to his garage near the Savitri bridge when he was shaken by a loud noise. He saw a bus plunging into the river from the bridge. "On hearing the noise, I thought that some vehicles had met with an accident. It was pouring. I began to yell for help when I spotted another bus falling into the river as well," said the 28-year-old truck driver of a Mahad-based auto garage.

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Sameer's friends, Basant Kumar and Surjit Kumar, watched the tragedy unfold from the window of their room. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Kumar resides on the first floor of the same garage, around 50 m from the bridge, with Surjit Kumar (23) and Basant Kumar (33).

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Sameer Kumar, who hails from Nepal and has been living in the Konkan region for the last five years, said, "I had eaten too much. So, I decided to walk till the garage. I usually take the old bridge, but this time I decide to walk on the new one to avoid traffic during the heavy rain."

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Sameer Kumar spotted the buses plunging into the river

Shaken out of sleep
He was jolted out of his jaunt by a noise from the direction of the old bridge, parallel to the one he was on. "I tried to alert the drivers behind the buses. But they couldn't hear me in the heavy rain. For some 30 minutes, I tried to hail a vehicle on the bridge I was on. Only when I stood in the middle of the road did an SUV stop.

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Kumar's roommates, too, were shaken by the noise of the bridge collapsing. Surjit was waiting by the window for Kumar's return and Basant was asleep when the tragedy struck. "It was very dark outside. Heavy rain made visibility poorer. There was no streetlight on the bridge, but we noticed that the headlights of vehicles were visible only till about half the bridge," said Surjit. "I woke Basant up and he mocked me, saying I was half asleep and cooking up things. After he realised that a tragedy had indeed struck, we told our boss and friend, Mishra, who alerted the police."

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Sandesh Yadav, manager of a roadside eatery, said he and his customers saw a person being swept away in the Savitri, but couldn't jump in to rescue. "The river was in spate, and waters choppy. We couldn't do anything."

(Inputs from Faisal Tandel)