Teen dies, friend critically injured in Coastal Road car crash

Preliminary investigations found the driver to be neither intoxicated not asleep at the wheel when the accident occurred

Mumbai: A 19-year-old woman lost her life, while her 22-year-old friend sustained severe injuries, after their car crashed into a divider on the Coastal Road near Haji Ali around 8 pm on Saturday.

Teen dies, friend critically injured in Coastal Road car crash

According to the police, the vehicle was being driven at high speed by 22-year-old Sanyam Sakla, who lost control, leading to the fatal collision. Preliminary investigations suggest that Sakla was neither intoxicated nor asleep at the wheel at the time of the accident. However, he lost control of the vehicle, causing it to crash into the divider.

Sakla, who resides with his family on the 37th floor of the ‘RA Residences’ building in Dadar East, is currently unconscious and undergoing treatment in the Intensive Care Unit of Breach Candy Hospital. His statement has not yet been recorded. Based on a complaint filed by a constable from Tardeo police station, an FIR has been registered against him under sections 106 (causing death due to rash and negligent driving) and 281 (rash or negligent driving on public roads) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, confirmed Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Dattatray Kamble, Zone 3.

The deceased, Gargi Vitthal Chate, was a first-year student at a prominent South Mumbai college and originally hailed from Nashik. According to police sources, Chate and Sakla met in Dadar on Saturday evening, after which Sakla offered to drop her home via the Coastal Road in his Swift. The accident occurred around 8:05 pm when, while driving at high speed near a curve behind Haji Ali, Sakla reportedly applied the brakes abruptly, swerving from the third to the fourth lane before crashing into the divider. The impact caused the car to overturn, leaving both occupants critically injured.

Passersby immediately alerted the police control room. Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) officer Avinash Gavade, who was passing by, assisted in rushing the victims to Breach Candy Hospital. Despite medical efforts, Chate succumbed to severe head injuries at 9:42 pm. Her family was informed, and her father arrived in Mumbai to collect her body. A post-mortem was conducted at Nair Hospital on Sunday morning before her remains were taken to Nashik for the last rites.

This is the second fatal accident reported on the Coastal Road. On September 20 last year, a worker, Kashmir Misa Singh, was struck and killed by a BMW allegedly driven by diamond merchant Rahil Himanshu Mehta, a resident of Worli. The investigation into Saturday’s accident is ongoing, with police awaiting Sakla’s recovery to record his statement.