Five killed as car crashes into State transport bus in Maharashtra's Beed district

Five people, among them an 11-year-old boy, were killed after their car swerved to avoid potholes and collided with a State transport bus in Maharashtra's Beed district on Sunday (October 18, 2026) morning, police said.

The accident occurred around 11 a.m. at Shindewadi Cross Road on the Khamgaon-Pandharpur National Highway in Majalgaon tehsil, around 55 km from the district headquarters, an official said.

He said that the victims, all residents of Majalgaon, were travelling towards Tuljapur in neighbouring Dharashiv district when their car crashed into a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus coming from the opposite direction.

The collision reduced the car to a mangled heap of metal, killing all five occupants on the spot, the official said.

According to the police, the deceased have been identified as Omkar Mahadev Giri (24), Gajanan Mahadev Namdas (38), his son Samarth (11), Somnath Bade (23), and Anil Acharya (40).

CCTV footage from the area showed the speeding car lose control while attempting to avoid potholes on a bridge, leading to the head-on crash with the bus, the official said.

The fatal crash triggered public anger over the deteriorating condition of roads on the Majalgaon-Telgaon stretch. Locals staged a road blockade alleging that substandard construction and poor maintenance had left fissures and uneven surfaces across the highway, turning the arterial road into an accident zone.

Traffic came to a standstill for several hours on the highway due to the protest before senior police and district officials arrived at the scene, pacified the protesters, and restored traffic flow.