Kharghar Joyride turns tragic when unlicensed driver hits accelerator instead of brake; 1 dead, 1 injured

One died and another was injured after six engineers on a car joyride crashed into a divider and rolled over to escape a pothole. While trying to avoid a pothole on the Gurudwara road in Kharghar, the driver of the car – Arnav Birari (18) – accidentally hit the accelerator pedal instead of the brake, causing the car to hit the road divider and overturn.

The incident took place on Tuesday afternoon when Birari and his other five friends from NMIM College in Kharghar decided to go for a joyride in Birari’s father’s car. The deceased student was identified as Darsh Jain (18) while the injured was Yash Maurya (18). The others in the car were Paik Sawariya (18), Kumari Agrim Parashar (18) and the complainant in the case Atharv Rawat (18). All of them were freshers of computer science at NMIM College, Kharghar.

Birari had brought his father’s Wagon R car to the college on October 8. At around 1:15 p.m., he took five fellow students for a joyride in Kharghar. While driving on the road in front of a Gurudwara, he tried to avoid a pothole. When he turned the steering wheel to the right, the car hit the road divider. According to police, Birari was confused and instead of hitting the brake, he stepped on the accelerator, which caused the car to rush forward uncontrollably and collided with the road divider, resulting in the car overturning.

As the car overturned, a stone intended for constructing the partition wall hit the rear right side window pane, due to which the stone hit Jain’s head, causing him serious head injuries. All the students managed to get out of the car, pulled Jain out and took him to the hospital, but doctors declared him dead on arrival. After initial investigation, Kharghar police found that the driver, Birari, did not have a driving license, and filed a lawsuit against him for reckless driving without a license and negligence resulting in death.