Mumbai, September 5 Former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry and a passenger who were killed in a road accident were not wearing seat belts, a preliminary investigation has found, and excessive speed and “error of judgement” by the driver caused the accident, a police official said. . Prima facie, the luxury car was speeding when the accident took place on Sunday afternoon, he said. The Mercedes car covered a distance of 20 km in just nine minutes after crossing the Charoti check post in Maharashtra’s Palghar district, 120 km away from Mumbai, the official said on Sunday evening. The car hit a road divider on a bridge over the Surya river, killing Mistry (54) and Jahangir Pandole on the spot. Mistry was returning to Mumbai from Ahmedabad when the tragedy struck at 2.30 pm. Mumbai-based gynecologist Anahita Pandole (55) was driving the car. She and Darius Pantole (60) were seriously injured in the accident. “According to the preliminary investigation, excessive speed and error of judgment caused the accident. Both the deceased were not wearing seat belts,” the official said. “On analyzing the footage captured by the CCTV cameras at the Charoti check post, the Palghar police found that the car crossed the check post at 2.21 pm. and the accident happened 20 km ahead (towards Mumbai),” he said. This shows that the car covered a distance of 20 km (from the checkpoint) in just nine minutes, the official said, adding that the accident took place at 2:30 pm on the Surya river bridge. Mistry and Jahangir Pandole were in the back seats. Darius Pandole was in the front seat and his wife Anahita Pandole was behind the wheel, police said. An eyewitness said a woman was driving the car and tried to overtake another vehicle on the left side, but lost control and crashed into the road divider. The bodies of Mistry and Jahangir Pantole have been sent to the state-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai for post-mortem, the official said. Jahangir Pandole was the brother of Darius Pandole, a former independent director of the Tata Group of Companies. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the state portfolio, has asked the police to conduct a thorough investigation into the accident. #Maharashtra #Mumbai
