Car-lift mishap: driver, parents under scanner

The police have registered a case of rash and negligent driving against a 14 year-old boy Hafeez Patel who died when he and his driver fell into the shaft of a car lift in their building at Nagpada on Thursday afternoon.

No charges have been laid against the driver yet, who was sitting next to the teenager when the fatal accident took place.

According to deputy commissioner of police, S Jaykumar, “Even if the boy knew driving, he was not supposed to be driving since he was

under age and hence we have invoked Sections 304(a) and 279 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 5 of the Motor Vehicles Act against him. ’’ When asked whether any action will be taken against the driver for allowing the boy to take control of the car, Jaykumar said that they will look into these aspects in due course. ‘‘We will also be examining whether the parents of the minor child handed over the car keys to the driver or to the minor child. This will determine the future course of action,” he said. Friends of the deceased driver said that Javed Ahmed was to get married soon and was the only earning member of his family.“His father and brother are ailing and Javed was the one sustaining the household,” a friend said. Police sources said that they had recovered an identity card at the mishap spot which revealed that the boy was a student of Falcon School in Byculla.“The family of the boy is in a state of shock and we are still waiting for a proper statement,” said an officer from Nagpada police station. A day after, the police have reconstructed the sequence of events that led to the tragic accident. It is learnt that the boy and his driver, Javed Ahmed (26), both got into the car around 12.40 pm in the car park located on the second floor of the 22nd storey of Iqbal building at Agripada. From the CCTV footage, it is clear that it is the boy who is in the driver’s seat, while the driver is seen sitting next to him. The car started reversing towards the lift but instead of stopping, it smashed through the door.“It seems that the boy had pressed the accelerator by mistake and the car ploughed into the shaft which was empty and plunged two floors below,” he explained. The shocking part is that the accident remained unknown to anyone in the building for almost four hours and the two victims remained trapped in the car for the entire period. Meanwhile, the family members realized that the boy and the driver were missing for more than four hours and they reached the Nagpada Police Station to lodge a missing person complaint. “On checking the cell locations of the two victims, the police realized that they were somewhere in the vicinity of the building. It was after a sustained search that the police found them in the car lift and they were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were declared dead before admission. Police sources said that there was another vehicle in the car lift on the third floor at that time which also got jammed due to the accident. This car driver tried to contact some friends but was unable to get through for some time. It was only much later that he could alert others about the situation and the lift mechanic was called in. “It seems that that was another person in the vicinity who heard the boy’s car smash through the lift, and we are trying to locate that person too,” an officer said.