In the third case of drunk driving in past one month, one person was killed and 10 others were injured as a 22-year-old drunk professional racer crashed his Porsche into 12 parked autos.
A professional racer, Vikas had won the premier title in MRF Formula 1600 category recently
The incident occurred at 3.30 am on Monday morning. About 10 auto drivers were sleeping inside the parked autos on the Dr Radhakrishnan Salai in Chennai. One auto driver was killed and 10 others were injured after the Porsche rammed into the parked auto rickshaws. Vikas Vijayanand, 22, son of Supreme Court lawyer Vijayanand, is said to have been drunk and was driving home with his friend Charankumar, son of a leading industrialist in Chennai, after a party to celebrate the victory of Tuti patriot during the Tamil Nadu Premier League. Both have been arrested. A professional racer, Vikas had won the premier title in MRF Formula 1600 category recently.
Vikas, according to police, was heavily inebriated and lost control of the vehicle. Apparently, the duo did not even realise that their Porsche had rammed into the autorickshaws, policemen said. They were unharmed as the airbags in the car deployed after they hit a curb and crashed into the autos. But both were unconscious.
Arumugam, 49, died at the Royapettah government hospital in Chennai. Barathan, 54, from Thiruverkadu near Chennai, was seriously injured and has been shifted to the Rajiv Gandhi multi speciality hospital in Chennai for further treatment. The other injured auto drivers, Mohideen, 43, Aadhikeasavan, 39, Sheikh Mohammed, 44, Deivaraj, 37, Mohideen, 39, Boopalan, 50, Sundar, 52 have been treated and discharged, police sources informed.
The Adyar Traffic police in Chennai have registered a case and investigation is on. This is the third case of drunk driving in Chennai in last one month. Earlier, a young girl had run over a 54-year-old man, who was waiting for a bus on a platform in Chennai’s IT corridor, in her Audi. Actor Arun Vijay had reportedly rammed his car on a police jeep and had gone underground, only to surrendered the next day. Vikas's is the third case of an expensive car involved in an accident under the influence of alcohol.
This incident brought to memory the case of Shaji Purushothaman, who had ploughed his speeding Mercedes Benz into a pavement in Egmore killing 13-year-old Muniraj in May 2013. Scion of distilleries baron MP Purushothaman, Shaji went absconding and was later arrested after the Madras High Court intervened.
