Seven dead in Audi car crash in Bengaluru

5 of the victims have been identified. They include a couple from Tamil Nadu and three others from Kerala, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.

Seven people, aged between 20 to 30, were killed when an overloaded and speeding luxury Audi car lost control and first rammed into bollards and later a building in Bengaluru’s Koramangala on Tuesday, police said.

The Audi car was completely crushed due to the impact of the crash. (HT Photo)

Karuna Sagar, son of Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam lawmaker Y Prakash, was among those killed in the accident. The six others were identified as Ishita, Dhanush, Akshay Goyal, Utsav, and Rohit.

Joint police commissioner (traffic) B Ravikanthe Gowda said the speeding car carrying seven people lost control around 1:45 am and crashed into the building. “The car was completely mangled in the accident. None of the passengers were wearing seat belts; so, the airbags did not open,” said Gowda. He added six of the seven died on the spot while the seventh succumbed on the way to a hospital. “Traffic police personnel reached the location within 10 minutes of the accident and were taking the injured person to the hospital, but he died on the way.”

A second traffic police officer cited the CCTV footage from a building near the accident scene and said it shows the car passing through in a fraction of a second. “Looking at the footage, we suspect that car was speeding at over 150 km per hour,” said the officer, who did not want to be named. The officer added the car lost control and first rammed into bollards on the road. “These bollards are heavy and sturdy, but the car was traveling at such speed that it went through them. Then after hitting the bollards, the car crashed onto the Punjab National Bank building. The car hit a corner of the building. Since the ground floor of the building was slightly elevated, the car hit a solid concrete block.”

Vishwanath, who lives close to the accident site, said when he came out after hearing a loud noise, he saw a lot of smoke coming from the vehicle. “...though we wanted to check on them, someone said the car could blast, so we were uncertain. But soon, we decided to pour water on the car and pull them (the occupants of the car) out,” he said. He added the person who was alive in the car after the accident was coughing. “So, he was pulled out first and police took him to the hospital in an autorickshaw. Others were clearly dead. There were three people in the front and four at the back. All of them had severe injuries or blood coming out of their mouths. It was hard to see... (there was) one woman at the back (and) something had pierced through her neck. It was very a horrible scene.”

Gowda said they have filed a case under Sections 279 (rash driving on a public way) and 304 (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code. “As per the preliminary investigation, this is a case of over-speeding and negligent driving. We will know if the driver was under the influence of alcohol after post-mortem.”

A relative of one of those killed said he was informed about the tragedy around 3 am. “We were told that he (Rohit) had gone out with his friends. We got a call on this phone and when we reached the police station, they showed us some photos of the accident and said he had died. Rohit’s parents had passed away and he was working in a private firm in Bengaluru,” he said.