Hyderabad: In an alleged incident of drunk driving, a woman driver ran over a cobbler sleeping on the footpath at Kushaiguda on Sunday night. The driver, an engineering student, and her three friends, including the daughter of an Inspector with the Hyderabad Police, were returning home after partying at a bar in AS Rao Nagar.
Though the woman behind the wheel, identified as Ishanya Pathireddy(20) and her three friends in the car were allegedly drunk at the time of the incident, the cops denied it saying that she had tested negative and that only the two girls, including the Inspector's daughter Harika Reddy, had consumed alcohol.
A case of accidental death (304A) and injuries (337) has been registered under the IPC. The other girls in the car were identified as Srujana Kowta (19), Amrutha Bharathi (20) and A Harika Reddy (19). As the safety balloons in the car opened immediately after the crash and the since the girls wear wearing seat belts, they escaped unhurt.
The car was registered in the name of Ishanya's mother Vijayapathi Reddy and has a pending traffic challan issued four months ago.
The four girls gathered at the Up Rooftop lounge bar located at AS Rao Nagar, where they had celebrated their birthdays and had alcoholic drinks and dinner. At around 12pm, they left the bar and started to drive back home in their car, no AP 29AY 5234 (White Skoda Rapid).
While heading towards Tarnaka, when the vehicle reached DAE colony, Ishanya lost control of the vehicle and swerved the vehicle towards the left. As the car was moving at a very high speed, it jumped on to the footpath and crashed into a cobbler's shop on the pavement, smashing the entire shop and damaging the concrete wall behind the shop.
Eyewitnesses claimed that the vehicle came to a halt after crushing Tilekar Ashok (48) and injuring his elder son Mahesh. Ishanya, who holds a valid driving license, told the cops that she had swerved because she had tried to avoid hitting a dog on the main road.
Kushaiguda Inspector K Chandra Shekar said that instead of applying brakes, Ishanya stepped on the accelerator, which led to the accident. She tested negative in the breath analyser test. Hairka recorded 135 mg/dL, while Bharathi recorded 20mg/dL, and Srujana tested negative in the test.
