Teacher heads for IIT-B fest, lands in hospital

Palghar resident Mangesh Tandel left his house in the morning to get a glimpse of the Techfest at IIT-B. But after a few hours, he found himself in the OPD of Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care Municipal Hospital.

The 44-year-old schoolteacher was travelling in a BEST bus along with 12 other passengers when it met with an accident near Marol depot Sunday afternoon. Mangesh, who had forgotten to bring his mobile phone in which there was a soft copy of the Techfest entry pass, had plans to return home.

“I was supposed to be at the IIT-B campus along with one of my students. I took the bus for Andheri station because I was not allowed to enter the Techfest without the entry pass. A few minutes later, the bus met with an accident,” Mangesh said.

As most of the affected got minor injures, they were admitted in the hospital. The driver, Shivaji Shinde, suffered leg injuries. According to the hospital, there were two senior citizens with some middle-aged passengers.

Dr Shashikant Wadekar, medical superintendent of the hospital, said, “All patients got discharged within a few hours. While two patients were advised to get admitted, they refused to do so. A majority of them has leg injuries and stitches on head.”

“I was sitting on the last seat of the bus. All of a sudden we heard a loud noise. I got hit by a pole in the bus. I was blacked out. I regained consciousness when the officials were shifting me into the the police van. I got four to five stitches on my forehead,” Mangesh said.

Adding information about the emergency medical treatment given at the hospital, he added: “They took medical tests of all passengers and we were treated in the OPD ward. My student got some chest injuries, but nothing major.”