Two men were killed while three of their friends sustained serious injuries when their SUV crashed into a tree after jumping on to the footpath at Senapati Bapat Marg in Lower Parel around 2am on Friday. According to police, the group was returning from a party at a club and the person at the wheel was drunk. Further, police quoted a witness as saying the car was speeding.Such was the impact of the crash that although the airbags in the front opened, the occupants sustained head injuries and fractures after hitting the roof of the vehicle. The deceased have been identified as
Sunil Dattani (29) and Satish Yadav (31). Police said Sudharshan Zinzurte, the driver who is in KEM Hospital, told them the group had gone to the club late Thursday evening and left the place after consuming alcohol at 1.30am. They were headed for Dadar when the crash took place. He reportedly said as the vehicle hurtled down a flyover, he did not notice a speedbreaker, resulting in him losing control. An offence of causing death due to rash and negligent driving has been filed against him by Dadar cops.
Sudharshan Zinzurte, who was driving the SUV that crashed into a tree in Lower Parel, has told police the group was on its way to drop a couple of members when the accident took place. While one friend was to be dropped at Sion, another lived in Vakola. Of those killed, one was sitting in the front, the other in the rear. Those injured have been identified as Kevin Dhanraj Pillai (38), Saad Ansari (37) and Zinzurte (30). Pillai is admitted at Holy Family Hospital and is critical, while Ansari too is in KEM. Police quoted Zinzurte as saying that the SUV, after hitting the hump, veered towards the right, grazed past the divider, swerved left and jumped on to the footpath before crashing into the tree.An eyewitness, Ravi Nanvatkar, who said he escaped being run over, gave a detailed account of the accident to police. A police officer said there were few people at the spot around the time of the accident. Locals who rushed after hearing the sound of the crash informed police, who reached within 10 minutes. An officer, among the first to reach the spot, said all five men were trapped in the car and they had a difficult time extricating them. “Without waiting for an ambulance, we rushed them to hospital in two police jeeps,” an officer said. Police officials said the men in the car seemed drunk. Samples of their blood have been collected and sent for forensic analysis to check alcohol content, said a police officer.