A night that began like any other turned into a scene of utter devastation on Monday when a high-speed electric MG Windsor car rammed into an auto-rickshaw and at least six two-wheelers near Sainik School on the busy Sainik School Road, killing two people on the spot and critically injuring four others.
The incident occurred around 9 PM in front of the Sainik School area under Maitri Vihar police station limits. According to eyewitnesses, the car was hurtling at breakneck speed from the MCA Square via NALCO towards Sainik School when it lost control and ploughed straight into the cluster of vehicles.“
The car was flying so fast that we all started screaming ‘Hey! Hey!’ to warn people,” said one shaken eyewitness. “But the driver didn’t slow down even for a second. The impact was terrifying — vehicles flew everywhere.”The force of the collision was so severe that the auto-rickshaw and multiple bikes were reduced to mangled wreckage scattered across the road. Rescue teams and locals rushed to pull out the victims from the twisted metal.
Maitri Vihar police reached the spot quickly, shifted the injured to nearby hospitals, and seized the abandoned MG Windsor. The driver, however, had already fled the scene on foot. Police sources indicated that preliminary evidence suggests the driver was under the influence of alcohol.
Locals, furious at the carnage, tried to catch the fleeing driver but he managed to escape into the darkness. Tension ran high at the accident site as crowds gathered and traffic came to a complete standstill.
Senior police officers have launched a massive manhunt for the absconding driver. “The vehicle has been seized and a thorough investigation is underway. We are using all available leads including CCTV footage to nab the culprit at the earliest,” a police official said.
This latest tragedy has once again spotlighted the reckless speeding and growing road safety concerns on Bhubaneswar’s arterial roads. As families of the victims wait in agony outside hospital wards, questions are being raised about how such high-speed tragedies continue to claim innocent lives in the state capital.
