MUMBAI, May 19 -- At least 13 people lost their lives and 25 others were injured on Monday when a tempo ferrying guests to an engagement party collided head-on with a container truck on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad national highway in Palghar district. The tempo was travelling on the wrong side of the highway to avoid a 3-kilometre detour, and the impact of the collision was so severe that the container got detached from the body of the truck and toppled onto the tempo, crushing the occupants beneath, police said. A two-wheeler which was passing by also got crushed under the container, resulting in the death of both the rider and the pillion rider. Doctors said the condition of some of the injured was critical and apprehended that the death toll could rise further. Within hours of the incident, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that financial assistance of Rs.5 lakh would be provided to the next of kin of the deceased. "The accident in which 13 citizens lost their lives after a container rammed into a tempo at Dhanivari in Palghar on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway is deeply unfortunate. I am extremely saddened to hear about this incident. I pay my heartfelt tributes to the deceased," the chief minister said in a post on X. According to the police, the accident occurred around 4:00pm near Dhanivari village in Dahanu taluka under Palghar district. The tempo was ferrying around 40 guests from Bapugaon village to Dhanivari village, both in Dahanu taluka, for an engagement party. "Though Dhanivari is located along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad national highway, the U-turn to access the village is located 3 kilometers ahead," senior police inspector Amar Patil from Kasa police station said. "The tempo driver likely wanted to avoid the long detour, so navigated the vehicle onto the wrong side of the highway, resulting in the accident." Local residents who witnessed the incident said there was blood everywhere. Ramarao Devkar, who was on his way to Dahanu when the incident occurred, said, "We did not wait for the police or other rescue teams to arrive and just rushed to help the injured. We pulled out at least seven people from under the container truck and rushed them to the hospital on autos and other vehicles." Among the 25 seriously injured, 14 were rushed to the Vedantaa Hospital in Dahanu, where they are admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU), while the remaining 11 are undergoing treatment at the Kasa Sub-District Hospital. Dr Sachin Waghmare from the Kasa hospital said that the condition of many of the injured was critical and the death toll could rise further. Palghar collector Indu Rani Jakhar too said the toll could rise further, and confirmed that 13 people had died in the accident. While all the guests in the tempo were from the groom's side, the groom, Balaram Dandekar, was travelling in a separate vehicle. "I was saved as I was travelling in a separate pick-up tempo," a visibly shaken Dandekar told reporters after the incident....