Click to play videoMumbai: Eleven people were injured in Malad late on Sunday night when a car ran over them after hitting three auto rickshaws. The condition of two of those who were hit is critical.
According to police, there were five youngsters in the vehicle and they were being chased by traffic cops when the accident happened. An empty bottle of liquor was recovered from the smashed ruins of the car.
"The youngsters were going to Malad from Kandivali. They were being chased by traffic police when they hit an auto here," Deputy Commissioner Police, Mumbai, Makrand Ranade said.
While three of the car’s occupants escaped, the other two — Chirag Jain (22) and Sunil Shah (22) — were detained by the locals. Both of them are engineering students.
Sunil has been remanded to judicial custody till June 20.
Though a breathalyser test is awaited, the presence of bottles of liquor in the car and testimony of eyewitnesses point towards a case of drunken driving.
Mohammed Haneef, one of those injured in the accident, was standing with his family outside their residence in Sunder Nagar in Malad when the car came crashing into the pedestrians.
"The auto was right in front of me. The car hit it and took a sharp turn to the left. We were standing on the pavement," Haneef said.
Despite the Mumbai Police collecting crore of rupees in fines and arresting more than a thousand people for drunken driving, the drivers in Mumbai do not seem to be learning the lesson of safe driving and in this case, as in so many others, it is the youth of the city that is causing havoc on the streets.
In 2008 alone, there has been a spate of drunken driving incidents and deaths.
- On Saturday night three teenagers were killed in an accident in Gurgaon. A fourth teenager in the car has been charged for drunken driving and is currently out on bail.
- There were three such incidents in March in Delhi, which claimed the lives of 10 people.
- In February, two students were killed and two others seriously injured in a car crash near India Gate. They were returning from a party when their car hit a tree.
- In November 2006, seven workers were killed when a car driven by one Alistair Pereira ran over them at Carter Road in Mumbai.
(With inputs from Arjun Chikale)
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