Hopes trampled by wheels

Five-year-old Rehan and his sister Zobia,3, are still waiting for the sweets and dry fruits their father had promised them. But the sweets will never come. Nor will their father, Shaikh Riyaz, return to the Borivali house. He, along with another family member, was killed in an accident on the Ratnagiri highway on Sunday morning.

Shaikh Riyaz Hasan, 33, and Shabbir Pasha Hamir, 28, were returning from a vacation in Goa when the Qualis they were travelling in rammed into a bus.

Riyaz worked as a salesman at a shop in Churchgate, while Shabbir, his sister-in-law’s son and a driver by profession, was at the wheels at the time of the accident. Shaikh Firoze Hasan, Riyaz’s younger brother, said: “I spoke to him last on Saturday. He was looking forward to meeting his kids.” But a Sunday morning call changed all that. “I arranged for a vehicle as soon as we got to know of the accident. However, within half an hour, I got another call informing us of his death, he said.

Meanwhile, Sidhdhesh Desai, who lies unconscious at the Satara Civic Hospital, does not know that he is one of the few surviving member of his extended family.

His father Deepak, 40, mother Poonam, 36, sister Priyanka, 10, and cousins, Vinay, 14, and Vishal Bhasal, 22, were killed in an accident on Saturday night at the Bombay-Goa Highway.

At their Dongri home another  family mourns the death of its four members in an accident at the Solapur-Pune Highway on Sunday, when a truck rammed their car. The victims have been identified as Amina Soratia, Sameer Soratia, Anjum Pathanwala and Arifa Pathanwala .