Delhi teen takes car out for joyride, rams into auto and kills driver

The 17-year-old, who has been booked, was allegedly driving his uncle’s Maruti Ciaz. The accident occurred at around 6am.

A car being driven by a 17-year-old boy, allegedly at high speed, rammed an auto-rickshaw, killing its driver near Connaught Place early on Thursday morning, police said.

The accident occurred at the intersection between KG Marg and Tolstoy Marg near Connaught Place. (ANI/Twitter)

The boy, who lives in east Delhi’s Yamuna Vihar, had taken his uncle’s car on a joyride with his two friends, aged 15 and 17, when the incident occurred around 5.45am on the intersection of Kasturba Gandhi Marg and Tolstoy Marg, said Madhur Verma, deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi).

The 66-year-old auto-rickshaw driver, Shiv Shankar Mehto, was declared dead at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. Two of the car’s three occupants were discharged from hospital by late afternoon. The boy on the rear seat, who was thrown out of the window as the car turned turtle, was still in intensive care, doctors said.

The boy driving the car was arrested and booked for causing death by negligence, rash driving and causing hurt. Police said that medical tests did not suggest the boys were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident, and the DCP said it was unlikely that the police would seek to try the boy as an adult.

“The three boys involved in the accident live in the same neighbourhood and are friends. The boy who was behind the wheel had taken his uncle’s car. The uncle is a school teacher and also serves as a director with a small private firm,” said Verma.

The victim, Mehto, lived with his son Kamleshwar near Mata Sundari Road in New Delhi. He was returning home after work when the accident occurred.

Since the Tolstoy Marg-KG Marg crossing only has a blinker as the traffic signal in the night hours, the two vehicles did not stop while passing through the intersection. “The damage to the car suggests it was being driven at high speed,” said the DCP.

“Eyewitnesses told us that the hit was such that the car rolled at least twice before landing next to the pavement. The auto driver was thrown onto the opposite carriageway,” said Mohammad Aslam, another auto river who reached the spot within minutes of the accident.