Parents Booked After Bengaluru Teen Driver Dies in Car Crash

Teenagers Arfan, Srinivas and Anirudh had taken their fathers’ cars out for a midnight race on Sunday.

The wreckage after Sunday’s deadly accident. 

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

A joyride in their fathers’ cars proved deadly for three Bengaluru teenagers. In the early hours on Sunday, three minor boys took their fathers’ cars out for a ride on the Hosur Road Elevated Flyover.

According to a report by the Times of India, the boys were driving at a speed of 140 km per hour when their cars brushed against each other. The impact of the jolt led to a tragic accident, where one of the minor boys’ head was severed.

The other two had a miraculous escape. The deceased, Arfan, 17, was the son of a local businessman Saleem. The two other boys who escaped unhurt are Srinivas and Anirudh, both 16-years-old. Their parents Govindaraju and Krishamurthy are IT professionals in reputed companies.

According to the police, Arfan and Srinivas are classmates studying at an international school. They were residents of Devarachikkanahalli, while their friend Anirudh is a resident of HSR Layout.

Upon questioning the two boys who survived, it was revealed that the trio went on joyrides often.

On Sunday too, the boys took their fathers’ cars – an Innova, a Swift Dzire and a Skoda – without the knowledge of their parents, and went on a drive at around 12:30 am.

ACP Traffic R Hitendra said:

The boys were descending the Elevated Flyover at Roopena Agrahara, and all three cars brushed against each other, and they lost control due to the high speed of the vehicles. The Skoda car, which Arfan was driving, hit the median on the left side of road. Due to the impact, his head snapped from his body and he died instantly.

The Innova veered to the right, bounced off the median, and hit a milk van coming from the opposite direction. Srinivas, who was driving the Innova, survived with minor injuries. However, as the Innova car rammed into the milk van, it turned over and the axle broke. The driver and cleaner in the milk van escaped with minor injuries, he said.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) R Hitendra, DCP Abhishek Goyal and other senior officers visited the spot.

A case of negligence has been filed against the two minor boys as well as the parents of the three boys at the Madiwala police station.

Driving by Minors

In 2015, the High Court of Karnataka asked police to book parents for minors riding/driving as per a report in Bangalore Mirror. Under section 184, parents can be sent to jail for six months or fined up to Rs 1,000, or both.

In spite of police and regional transport offices (RTOs) becoming more strict about cracking down on under-age driving, many parents continue to allow minors to drive vehicles since it is seen as an indication of letting them be independent.

Hyderabad police had gone into an overdrive in 2016, after an inebriated young man without a licence ended up killing a small girl and her grandfather. More than 260 minors were caught driving in one day.

Past Instances of Road Rage

On 27 August, a minor road rage incident led to the murder of a 21-year-old youth, and left his friend with critical stab injuries, when a group of suspected drug addicts attacked them with weapons at a bakery in Wilson Garden.

Karthik and his friend Avinash had seen two men on a bike, which was moving in the wrong direction on a one-way street. They reprimanded the biker for breaking the rules. A few hours later, a group of men came in an auto rickshaw and stabbed Karthik to death while Avinash sustained grievous injuries.

In August 2016, in another incident of road rage, a 33-year-old Major in the Indian Army was pulled out of his vehicle and brutally assaulted by an auto driver and four others near the SCT Institute of Technology on Kaggadasapura Main Road. A techie intervened and helped the major, who survived the brutal attack.

(This story first appeared on The News Minute and has been republished with permission)

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