Chennai: A safety meet at an apartment complex turned deadly for two persons on ECR here, after a speeding car killed the apartment’s welfare association secretary and security bureau officer on Tuesday night.
The driver has been identified as an executive of Bank of Maharashtra, heading Tiruvanmiyur branch, operating in apartment complex.
The irate residents of the apartment handed him over to the city police on Wednesday.
Four persons including the deceased – Piyari Lal, (62), secretary of Sai Subhodaya Apartment’s Residents’ Association, and Abdul Rahim, (44), security-bureau officer of the apartment were deliberating as to how to improve the safety and security of the apartment complex when the incident took place. Two other residents, Nalini and Srinivasan, were walking along the compound on the same path.
Bank’s chief manager Venkatesh, (35), after the day’s work, started his car parked on the campus and drove straight into the sextet near the gate. The deceased stayed on the front bonnet of the car which rammed them into the gate before coming to a halt.
The injured were rushed to a private hospital in the vicinity while the deceased were rushed to another private hospital in Adyar where the duo succumbed to injuries. Of the four injured Brindheswaran, (55), guard, and Vasudevan, (62), apartment resident, were being treated, while the other two were treated as outpatients for the minor injuries.
Venkatesh, who caused the accident, was later handed over to Tiruvanmiyur Police on Wednesday.
During the interrogation, Venkatesh claimed that the brakes in the vehicle failed when he started it, leading to the accident.
Senior police officers who are privy to the investigation suggested that Venkatesh could have been learning to drive very recently. “He was driving alright until he climbed a speed breaker installed inside the complex.
He appears to have got confused the accelerator with the brake after he panicked on the sight of the people blocking his way. He had floored the accelerator instead of the brake pedal and hit them. The front right tyre burst in the impact,” said an officer.
Thiruvanmiyur police who took him in custody charged him under section 304A (causing death by negligence). The car was seized and will be tested by a motor inspector to verify the claims of brake failure.
The driver was later remanded to judicial custody by a magistrate in the city and was lodged in Puzhal Prison. The bodies were handed over to the bereaved families after post-mortem at the Government Royapettah Hospital.
