PANJIM: A 25-year-old labourer Amit Yadav was killed while two others were seriously injured after being hit by a speeding car while they were filling potholes on the old Mandovi bridge in the wee hours of Thursday.
Police stated that Amit Yadav and his colleagues Abhayrai Nirmal, and Dhiraj Sharma, all from Uttar Pradesh were engaged in road repair work using a jet patcher machine when the unfortunate incident occured. A critically injured Yadav was shifted to the Goa Medical College and Hospital but unfortunately breathed his last, while the two others were were seriously injured are being treated at the hospital.
Eyewitnesses stated that the driver of the vehicle was allegedly in drunken stupor at the time of the fatal accident, drove his car in a rash and negligent manner, knocked down the barricades and hit the labourers as they were filling potholes.
He then abused and threatened bystanders who tried to reach out to the victims at the site of accident. “He was so intoxicated that he could barely stand,” said an eyewitness to the horrific accident.
Meanwhile, Panjim PI Vijaykumar Chodankar confirmed that the driver of the killer vehicle Sanket Shet, resident of Chowkiwada Volvoi, Ponda, Goa was arrested for driving the car allegedly under the influence of alcohol. “The medical reports have confirmed that the driver was drunk,” said police.
Shet has been booked under sections 281, 105, 125 (a) and 125 (b) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and 185 of Motor Vehicle Act 1988 have been registered at the Panjim Police Station.
It may be recalled that a similar horrific accident had taken place in August 2023 when a speeding Mercedes SUV knocked down several vehicles on the Banastarim bridge where in three people were killed and six were injured. The driver who was suspected to be intoxicated, fled from the scene devastating and plunging so many families into grief.
