In a harrowing development, a Bolero car ran over pedestrians who were sleeping on the sidewalk late Friday night on the Pathankot bypass road in Jalandhar, under police station 8. Two people died instantly as a result of the tragedy, while two more people suffered severe injuries. The cops took the injured to the civil hospital for treatment.
The deceased have not yet been identified as no identification documents were found with them. Sub-inspector Daljeet Singh, the investigating officer from police station 8, reported receiving information from the control room about the car accident. Upon reaching the scene, he discovered two individuals had already died, and two were severely injured and lying on the road.
The injured were taken to the nearest hospital for treatment, and the bodies of the deceased were moved to the civil hospital for identification and postmortem. The Bolero car driver, identified as Shivam, has been arrested. Eyewitnesses described the accident as resembling a scene from a movie. The car, traveling at a high speed of 100 km/h, climbed the divider, struck cars parked on the side of the road, and finally came to a stop near a pole.
Witnesses pointed out that the driver appeared to be in a drunken state, and there was a smell of beer in the car, though no police officer has confirmed this. The car damaged two pipes, collided with parked cars at a nearby taxi stand, and eventually halted near a shop. The owner of the taxi stand narrowly escaped injury, having moved inside just minutes before the accident.
Residents of the area informed the control room immediately, but the police arrived an hour later. By that time, the bodies were lying by the roadside, and passersby were stopping to take videos. Two individuals at the scene mentioned that the deceased were laborers often seen at the chowk in the morning seeking daily wages. Witnesses also reported that they caught the driver, who appeared intoxicated and was unresponsive.
The speed of the car was so high that after hitting the pole, the tire burst with a loud noise, resembling an explosion.