Airbags save mgmt students on speed trip

Mumbai: A management student was arrested early on Wednesday in Vasai for rash driving after he, allegedly in a drunken state, broke through a police barricade in a sedan and rammed it into a road divider. Such was the speed of the car that it turned turtle on impact. A bigger tragedy was averted because the vehicle's airbags got activated. 

    Aniruddha Shashidharan, the 21-year-old son of a Virar-based industrialist, was driving a borrowed grey Mercedes. In the vehicle with him were Monish Rathod (21) and Gaurav Shroff (22), both sons of local builders. The three are secondyear management students at Viva College in Virar (West). 
    On Tuesday, police said, the three youngsters stopped at a restaurant in Bhuigaon in Vasai for drinks and then headed towards Mira Road to pick up the owner of the sedan. Cops identified the owner as Vaze. The group's plan, officers said, was to travel to Mumbai to party. 
    At Babula naka in Vasai, the speeding sedan nearly brushed against a police vehicle on patrol. Immediately, Thane Rural additional superintendent of police Sangramsinh Nishandar, who was in the police vehicle, alerted the control room and beat officers, who chased the vehicle. Still, the youngsters did not let up. 
    Shashidharan drove the sedan to Ambadi Road in Vasai where a barricade had been put to catch the speeding vehicle. According to Nishandar, Shashidharan broke through the barricade and drove past the policemen. He then took a steep right towards Range Naka, in the process losing control. The sedan hit the road divider before turning turtle on Sativali Road in Vasai at around 3am. The youths' lives were saved because the car's airbags got activated on impact. 
    Police said the Mercedes' speed at the time of the accident was 120 kmph. They arrested the three youngsters and impounded the vehicle. 
    Blood tests of the students showed they were drunk. Shashidharan was arrested under sections 279 (rash driving), 427 (mischief) of the IPC and allied charges under the Motor Vehicle Act. Rathod and Shroff too were charged. They were released on bail by Vasai holiday court. 
    Police have written to the Thane Regional Transport Authority to cancel the licences of the three. The owner of the vehicle will be summoned for questioning.

The 21-year-old driver of the sedan broke through a police barricade in Vasai and banged it into a divider, causing the car to turn turtle