TNN

Mumbai, May 26: In a bizarre accident that occurred during the wee hours of Sunday morning, a speeding Honda City dashed into a stationary tempo which in turn hit an electric pole that fell on the pavement outside Badhwar Park, the railway colony at Colaba, injuring 16 people sleeping on the pavement.

Police booked car driver Siddharth Haresh Asar (33), a Worli-based businessman, for rash and negligent driving. Zonal deputy commissioner of police, Brijesh Singh, said, "We have arrested Asar for rash driving." A medical examination did not find Asar drunk. Asar resides at Kalpataru Horizon opposite the Worli police station.

According to the police, Asar and his wife were on their way to Cuffe Parade at around 2.40 am to drop his friend and wife. The duo had come to Asar's house at Worli, the police said. The vehicle was speeding at around 80 km per hour when Asar suddenly lost control.

After the electric pole fell on the pavement dwellers, people from the nearby slum gathered in huge numbers and got Asar and other occupants out of the car. Asar, who suffered injuries, was shifted to Bombay Hospital. The injured pavement dwellers were shifted to GT Hospital and St George Hospital. Of the 10 patients, who were admitted to GT Hospital, nine were discharged by afternoon. Some were shifted to private hospitals of which two of the ten were women.

Sixty-year-old Jinku Prasad, one of the victims, fell unconscious when the electric pole hit his head, and woke to find himself in hospital. He has no idea how he got there.

Prasad, a loader for a government-run ration supply depot, lives in a hut near Badhwar Park. On Saturday night, he decided—for the first time— to sleep on the pavement as it was too hot to sleep inside the hut that night. Prasad sustained head injuries after the accident and is the only one still admitted at GT Hospital.