Four people were injured after a speeding BMW, being driven on the wrong side, crashed into an Uber cab and auto before hitting a boundary wall on Sunday morning in south Delhi’s RK Puram.
Police said the driver of the luxury car, Rajat Prabhakar, was arrested and found to be driving under the influence of alcohol. A bottle of alcohol was also recovered from his car. He is a resident of Karol Bagh and helped his father in his business, police said.
According to the police, two passengers of the cab — Munni Dutta (28) and her husband Bitoo Pal (32), its driver — Pradeep (32) and the driver of the autorickshaw — Ram Chander (60) were injured in the accident. While the auto driver is stable, the couple’s condition is critical.
The couple from Nepal work in a company in Noida and have sustained severe head injuries, police said.
The accident took place at 8 am at Major Som Nath Sharma Marg near Shani Mandir in Sector 1, RK Puram. Police said the BMW being driven on the wrong carriageway first rammed a Maruti Swift Dzire cab head on and then the auto. The car was coming from the Delhi Airport side while the cab was headed towards the airport from Noida.
“The driver of the BMW was driving on the wrong side and was speeding. The impact of the hit was so powerful that the front left portion of the Swift Dzire was badly damaged. As the BMW was speeding, its driver lost control after hitting the Swift and hit a parked auto before crashing into a boundary wall,” said a police officer.
A case has been registered at the RK Puram police station. The vehicles have been impounded.
An eyewitness told HT that there was a loud thud and locals rushed to help the victims. “We heard a loud screech and went to help the occupants of the cab. One person also made a PCR call. It appeared that the driver was drunk,” a local said.
The driver Prabhaker is the son of a businessman Rakesh Kumar. The car, police said was registered in the name of Daily Food India Koundli in Sonepat.
“Medical examination revealed that he was driving under the influence of alcohol. We have arrested him and charged him under sections of causing hurt due to negligence and dangerous driving and challaned him under sections of the MV Act for drunk driving,” additional DCP, (south) Chinmoy Biswal said.
The accused has studied up to Class 12 from Bishop Cotton, Shimla and completed his BCom honours from Bhagat Singh College in Delhi University.
This is the second time in two months that a BMW has rammed an Uber cab in recent weeks. In January, a speeding BMW hit a Wagon R Uber taxi near the Munirka flyover in south Delhi.
The same month, four people including a woman techie were killed in Ghaziabad when a speeding Audi rammed an auto.
Official data show a sharp rise in road accidents in India – one every four minutes -- and road crashes are identified as number one killer of young men and women.
Almost 97% of the road accidents are caused by rash or negligent driving including drink driving, data show.
