Yet another drunk driver held for mowing down pavement dweller
Drinking and driving make a lethal cocktail. In less than a week, another reckless driver ran over a homeless man and left four others injured. A Tata Safari ran over five pavement dwellers in the Capital on Wednesday night on Ring Road near Raj Ghat. A 50-year-old man was crushed to death under the killer wheels. The accused, identified as Satya Prakash, was accompanied by the son of the vehicle owner and was reportedly drunk. The other pavement dwellers thrashed the rogue driver and handed him over to the cops. The stretch from Chandgi Rama Akhara near Kashmere Gate to Raj Ghat red light is considered particularly accident-prone.
The victims are homeless rickshaw pullers who spend their nights pounding the pavements. This is the second such hit-and-run in a week along the same corridor. A speeding SUV mowed down one and injured 13 others on Sunday night near Kashmere Gate. The driver of that vehicle too had been found drunk. Soon after the accident, Delhi Traffic Police placed barricades on this particular stretch to regulate the speed of vehicles.
According to police, the incident took place around 11:45 pm near Raj Ghat area in Central Delhi. The driver of the car at the wheels of a Tata Safari was on his way back from the office of his employer’s son. The car is registered in the name of Sonia Sehgal, who is a doctor based in Rohini area. Sehgal’s son Karthik was also in the car during the time of the incident. The driver told police he was coming back from Karthik’s office near Mata Sundri Road.
“The car was being driven at breakneck speed. Satya lost control behind the wheel when he neared Ghata Masjid on Ring Road. He rammed his car into the central divider. The car came to a grinding halt after hitting the end of the pavement a few metres ahead,” said a senior police official. All the wounded were rushed to hospital where Munna (50) succumbed to his injuries.
“We heard a loud crash and later saw a man crushed under the wheels of the car,” claimed an eyewitness.