Mumbai:

In yet another killer crash involving luxury cars, a 21-year-old man died in Thane near Mumbai late last night after a speeding Mercedes hit his two-wheeler from behind. The driver sped away and the high-end car was later found in a paid parking spot. Police have registered a case and efforts are on to identify the accused.

Eyewitnesses have said that the speeding Mercedes was closely followed by a Thar SUV, also driven rashly, and the two vehicles were headed towards Mumbai when the accident occurred.

Senior Police Inspector Shailesh Salvi said Darshan Hegde was crossing the Nitin Company Junction area around 1.50 am when a Mercedes Benz hit the two-wheeler he was riding. “He has died in the crash. We have registered a case at Nuapada police station and the probe is on. Two teams are scanning CCTV footage in the area and checking RTO details to identify the accused,” he said.

The case has been registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections relating to rash driving and causing death due to negligence, and relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act.

An eyewitness said, “We heard a loud crash around 2 am. We saw that a Mercedes had hit a two-wheeler. I put him (Darshan) into an auto-rickshaw and rushed him to a hospital. He was alive for about 15 minutes, then he died.” Asked if the Mercedes, and the Thar following it, stopped after the crash, he replied, “They did not stop at all, not for a second. They were driving very fast.”

The hit-and-run case is the latest in a string of incidents in Maharashtra in which rash driving has claimed lives.

In May, a speeding Porsche with a teenager at the wheel hit a bike from behind. The crash left two young engineers dead and sparked nationwide outrage. In July, a rashly driven BMW hit a two-wheeler in Mumbai’s Worli. The woman pillion rider was dragged for about 100 metres and suffered fatal injuries.