A movie night in Mumbai followed by a spontaneous early-morning drive to watch the sunrise in Lonavala ended in tragedy for three IIT-Bombay students, who were killed in a crash on their way back on Thursday. Three IIT Bombay students died when their SUV lost control during an overtaking truck near the Panvel exit on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Mumbai, India. Mar 19, 2026. (Raju Shinde)
The students were found trapped inside the mangled wreckage of their car after it rammed into a container truck on the Mumbai–Pune Expressway around 8:35 am. Highway traffic police used cutters to pull them out before rushing them to MGM Hospital in Kamothe, where they were declared dead.
The accident was first reported by a bus driver. The students were travelling in a Volkswagen Polo, which crashed into the rear of the container truck while attempting to overtake it near the Bhatan tunnel on the expressway.
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FIR registered, CCTV footage monitored The impact of the accident was so severe that the car flipped several times and was then reduced to a heap of twisted metal.
An FIR has been registered against an unidentified person based on a complaint filed by Hitesh Kumar Meena, another student travelling in a different car.
Police are reviewing CCTV footage to identify the container truck involved and are examining whether overspeeding or driver fatigue played a role in the crash.
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What happened near the Mumbai-Pune Expressway? The three students were a part of six IIT-B students travelling in rented Volkswagen Polo. The group had spent the night watching a movie in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex before heading to Lonavala for a sunrise drive.
The crash occurred about 1.5 km after the Bhatan tunnel as they were returning to Mumbai.