Four people were injured in the early hours of Friday morning near Greenways Road in Chennai, when they were hit by a car driven by a drunk driver. After he hit them, the cab driver drove his car through the compound wall of the residence of the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Indira Banerjee.
The four injured – Robin, Amit, Kakai and Benjamin – work at a hotel and were returning home from work when they were hit, Adyar traffic police told TNM. While Amit and Benjamin suffered fractures on their legs, the other two suffered minor injuries.
A cab driver, Ayyapan was under the influence of alcohol and accompanied by his friend, Velayuthan. Both, Ayyapan and Velayuthan have been arrested by the Adyar Traffic police and have been taken to Saidapet Court.
A complaint has been filed at the Adyar Traffic Police under Section 337, Section 338 (Causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), Section 308 (Attempt to commit culpable homicide) of Indian Penal Code and Section 185 in The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
According to National Crime Records Bureau data, Chennai has the highest number of drunk driving deaths in the country. In 2015, Chennai reported 93 deaths and 568 injuries due to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
In October last year, a speeding BMW rammed a motorbike, injuring the two people riding on it. According to reports, the driver hit the bike when he was returning home from a party drunk.
A month before that, racer Vikash Anand was arrested after the Porsche in which he and a friend were travelling rammed a line of parked autorickshaws, killing one person and injuring eight others.
Earlier in July, a 45-year-old man was killed when he was hit by a speeding Audi on the OMR Road. Eyewitnesses to the accident had reported that the car had been carrying three women, including the driver, who were so inebriated that they found it difficult to stand up when they got out of the car after the accident.