Bengaluru: Seven people, including three women and son and daughter-in-law of a DMK MLA from Hosur in Tamil Nadu, were killed after a speeding luxury Audi Q3 car rammed into a pole on the footpath and dashed against the wall of a nearby building here in the wee hours of Tuesday.
The incident took place near Mangala Kalyana Mantapa in Koramangala locality.
The deceased were identified as Karuna Sagar (28), son of DMK MLA from Hosur constituency Y Prakash, his wife Dr Bindu, daughter-in-law of MLA Prakash, Ishita (21), Dr Dhanusha (21), Akshay Goyal (23), Utsav and Rohith (23).
The impact of the accident was such that six of them died on the spot and one succumbed on the way to hospital. The airbags of the luxury vehicle did not open, leading to the death of all the travellers in the vehicle, the Audugodi traffic police said.
Eyewitnesses said they heard an explosion-like sound. Soon, the public gathered and called an ambulance and the police. Four of them were not breathing and it took nearly 20 minutes to drag the bodies out of the vehicle.
All the deceased are aged between 20 and 30. Three of them sat in front and four sat in the back. None of them wore seat belts as per the preliminary investigation. All bodies have been kept at the mortuary of Saint John’s hospital.
According to police officials, Akshay Goyal is from Kerala and Utsav hailed from Haryana. Rohith was from Hubballi and a few of the victims were staying at a PG hostel.
The Audi Q3 vehicle involved in the accident was completely damaged. The interior of the car was smeared with blood stains and two rear wheels were smashed.
According to police, Karuna Sagar came to Bengaluru for purchase of medicines at 5.30 pm on Monday. He also carried out business in Bengaluru. The family had called him for dinner at 9.30 pm. He informed his family that he would not come for dinner and went ahead with his friends.
Additional Commissioner for Traffic Dr Ravikanthe Gowda visited the spot and said, “The accident has taken place due to negligent and rash driving. An investigation will be conducted by a team headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police.”
It is yet to be ascertained whether the driver drove the car in an inebriated state. The driver had lost control of the speeding car, which had rammed into the electric pole on the footpath and later dashed into the wall of the Punjab National Bank building.
The vehicle involved in the accident was registered in the name of Sanjeevini Blue Metal Company. The investigation is on.