Days after former MLC Vinayak Mete died in a car crash on Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said it was an "utterly wrong judgement" of the vehicle's driver.
The Maharashtra government is going to introduce an Artificial Intelligence-based traffic management system on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway which will enable police to immediately get the location of a person making a call to them after an accident, Fadnavis said in the state Assembly.
Shiv Sangram Party leader Mete (52) was killed when his car headed towards Mumbai hit a truck from behind on the expressway near Madap tunnel in Raigad district on August 14.
He was travelling to Mumbai from his home district Beed to attend a meeting called by the state government regarding the Maratha quota.
Fadnavis was on Monday responding to a calling attention notice in the state Assembly by Congress legislator Varsha Gaikwad on Mete's death in the accident. "The driver changed the lane and tried to overtake a heavy commercial vehicle in the middle lane from left side.
There was already another heavy vehicle in the left lane and there was no space for overtaking it.
"It was an utterly wrong judgement of the driver," Fadnavis said.
"Thus, the accident impact was on Mete's side who was sitting behind in the car. The driver's side of the vehicle was not affected or damaged," the state home minister said. After an accident, people make calls for help from their mobile phones, he noted.
"The state government is going to introduce an Artificial Intelligence-based Intelligent Traffic Management System on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The system will enable police personnel to receive the location of a caller immediately," the minister said. When a person makes a call after an accident, the system would enable police to locate the nearby mobile phone tower and zero-in on the exact location of the caller, he said.
This system will also help in maintaining a concurrent live tracking of the expressway traffic, he said.
When Mete's driver made a call to police, he merely said that he was outside a tunnel, Fadnavis pointed out.
"The driver could not even inform police which tunnel he was talking about. The Navi Mumbai police tried locating him near two tunnels, but he was not found. Finally, Mete's accident hit vehicle was located outside a third tunnel which was under the jurisdiction of Raigad police," he said.