In a shocking case of rash and negligent driving, five youngsters, including a woman, were killed when a Honda City car in which they were travelling rammed into a tree along the Western Express highway at Vile Parle in north-west Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday.
Such was the impact of the collision that four of the five occupants in the car died instantly, while the remaining one succumbed to injuries at a nearby hospital. The vehicle was mangled fully.
“It was a pretty bad car crash. The car must have rammed into the tree with full force. The impact must have been very huge, given that the roof of the car has been ripped off and the vehicle is mangled fully,” Senior Police Inspector Raksha Maharao said.
The mishap occurred at 5 am about 300 metres away from a flyover near the domestic airport. Motorists passing by alerted the police about the mishap.
In an effort to ascertain if it was a case of drunken driving, the police collected the blood samples of all the victims — all in the age group of 20-25 years, and sent for analysis.
Though the vehicle bore the Pune registration number, the police said that the victims were residents of Mira Road, a distant northern suburb of Mumbai,
Three of the five persons killed in the mishap were identified as Muzzamil Khamosia (22), Rashid Shaikh (25) and Junaid Shaikh (22), while the names of two other victims were not immediately known.