Date:15/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/15/stories/2007121562521500.htm

National

Police on lookout for juvenile car driver

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: The police suspect that a teenager without a valid licence was driving the Mercedes Benz that ran over and killed two construction workers and injured six others sleeping on a pavement along the New Avadi Road, Kilpauk, in the early hours of Thursday.

A police officer investigating the case said the driver did not appear to have enough experience to drive the car.

Address traced

The address of the vehicle owner had been traced with the assistance of RTO authorities. The car belongs to a member of a leading corporate house.

The father of the teenager, believed to be a juvenile, appeared before the Anna Nagar traffic police on Friday.

Preliminary investigations by the police suggested that apart from the driver, there was at least one more person in the car at the time of the accident.

The dead included a woman, identified as Muniamma, and one of the injured is in a serious condition, the police said.

The accident happened when the juvenile driver, after hitting a two-wheeler and injuring its rider, lost control of the vehicle and ran over the pavement dwellers around 2.30 a.m. on Thursday. The driver fled the scene and is believed to have gone away to Delhi. The police are on the lookout for him.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sunil Kumar told The Hindu that only after securing the driver would the police know from which direction the car came and what led to the accident. Whether the driver had a valid licence also needed to be verified, he said.