1 killed, 5 injured as drunk students crash car into autos

Police said that a group of college students in an inebriated state, was driving in a Chevorlet Cruze car from Anna Salai to Marina beach, when the driver lost control of the vehicle and dashed against one of the five autorickshaws parked along the way. 

In the collision, B Rajesh (35), one of the auto drivers, who was sleeping in his vehicle, was crushed to death, while N Tirumalai (38), J Mohan (31), G Babu (42), B Gopal (50) and K Perumal (38) were injured. 

Motorists who noticed the crash rushed the injured to Royapettah Government Hospital for treatment. On information, Adyar traffic police recovered the body of the auto-driver and sent it for post-mortem. All the victims are from Arakkonam Taluk in Vellore district. The deceased, Rajesh, is married and has two children, aged seven and five. 

On the orders of Additional Commissioner (Traffic) K Periaiah, police booked the five students- Naveed Ahmed, Kirankumar, Vishal, Vijayakumar and Harikrishna. - under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code and Motor Vehicles Act. All of them are said to be the students of a private college in the city. 

Though the auto drivers belong to a stand near Albert Theatre, they always park the autos on Radhakrishnan Salai at night, said a police official. Another traffic cop DT Next spoke to said that the spot is not an auto stand, but the drivers ignore their orders not to park vehicles over there. 

A few auto drivers claimed that despite the presence of five pubs in the vicinity, traffic police are hardly present in the odd hours to check for drunk driving.