Navi Mumbai/ Nagothane, April 4 -- A private bus ferrying employees of a Panvel-based firm to Goa for a vacation toppled over in the ghats near Nagothane on the Mumbai-Goa Highway (NH-66) in the early hours on Friday, killing at least two passengers and injuring 9-10 others critically. The accident occurred in the Sukeli Khind section as the driver was speeding and failed to negotiate a sharp bend while going uphill, survivors and police officers said. Inspector Sachin Kulkarni from Nagothane police station said the driver, who was among the 38 people injured in the accident, had been booked for rash driving that endangers human life and causing death by negligence. "We are recording statements of the survivors and conducting a technical inspection of the vehicle. We are also examining the driver's conduct, vehicle condition and road geometry as part of the investigation," Kulkarni said. The deceased were identified as Kamothe resident Naim Nizam Sheikh, 33, and advocate Neelam Vibhute, 40, director and vice president of the Panvel-based firm, Om Estate Services Private Limited. The death toll could rise as several injured are still critical, officials said. The Sukeli Khind stretch has long been flagged for safety risks due to its sharp bends, poor visibility and instances of speeding. After the accident around 2.30am on Friday, traffic on the busy Mumbai-Goa Highway was disrupted for a few hours, with long queues reported amid heavy holiday traffic. The toppled bus was removed using a crane, after which vehicular movement was restored. Rajendra Patil, one of the injured passengers, said the Goa trip had been organised by Om Estate Services' chief executive officer Vaibhav Vibhute, whose wife and director of the firm Neelam Vibhute was among the deceased. The sleeper bus (MP/13/ZP/4545) left Panvel around midnight with 45 employees, he said. "The driver was speeding from the very beginning and ignored repeated requests to slow down, even on dangerous curves," said Patil. "Some passengers also raised complaints through an online platform during the journey, but no action was taken." Around 2.30am, when the bus was negotiating a sharp uphill bend near Sukeli village at high speed, it went out of control and toppled on its side, throwing passengers off their berths, Patil said. One of the passengers was pinned beneath the overturned bus, local villagers who assisted the official rescue team said. "It was a very delicate situation. After sustained efforts, we managed to extricate her safely," a villager said, requesting anonymity. The villagers rushed to the accident site when they heard a loud noise, and found people trapped inside the bus and crying for help. "We had to break windows to pull them out," the villager quoted earlier said. Police said they received a call about the incident at 2.35am and launched a rescue operation along with the fire brigade immediately. The rescue went on for an hour, and the injured were rushed to the Nagothane primary health centre, sub-district hospitals in Roha and Alibag, and MGM Medical College and Hospital in Kamothe. Critically injured passengers were later shifted to MGM Hospital in Kalamboli for advanced care. While two passengers were declared dead on arrival, dozens others suffered injuries ranging from fractures to severe head trauma, police said. Authorities at the MGM Medical College and Hospital in Kamothe said 22 injured persons including two minors were treated at the hospital. Several had suffered multiple injuries including head, chest and pelvic trauma, while one patient required emergency surgery for abdominal and pelvic injuries, said Dr KR Salgotra, hospital director and medical superintendent. "Around 12 patients were in serious condition. Five of them are still critical and admitted in the ICU," Salgotra said. The bus driver, 36-year-old Hemant Patil, has been booked under sections 106(1) (causing death by negligence), 281 )rash or negligent driving on a public way that endangers human life), and 125(A)(B) ( rash or negligent acts that endanger human life) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with section 184 (dangerous driving) of the Motor Vehicles Act, police said. "It appears that the driver was speeding and failed to negotiate the sharp turn in the ghat section, causing the vehicle to overturn," said inspector Kulkarni. "We may press additional charges against him if the medical report shows he was drunk when the accident occurred." While the driver was under treatment at the Alibag sub-district hospital, bodies of the two deceased had been handed over to their families after post-mortem, Kulkarni said....