Mumbai: A team from the Palghar Police recorded on Tuesday the witness statement of businessman Darius Pandole, one of the two survivors of the car crash of September 4 in which his brother Jehangir and former Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry died.
The police recorded the statement four days after Pandole was discharged from Girgaum’s Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital and declared fit for the process.
According to Pandole, his wife, Dr Anahita Pandole, who was driving the Mercedes car while he sat in the front passenger seat, was trying to move past a heavy vehicle by overtaking it when the three-lane highway suddenly became a two-lane one.
Flustered by the abrupt change, and to avoid causing an accident, she rammed into the wall of the bridge over the Surya river, a senior police officer said.
Moments before the crash, Dr Pandole had lost control of the wheel, according to her husband. Two Palghar police officers recorded his statement at his Mumbai residence.
Balasaheb Patil, Superintendent of Police (SP), Palghar District, told The Free Press Journal, “We got to know he was discharged and doctors gave us the heads-up on his condition, so we sent two officers to record his statement as a witness."
Patil said that as Pandole was sitting next to the driver, police wanted to learn about the sequence of events preceding the crash. “As per his statement to us, a heavy vehicle was right in front of their SUV. She was trying to move past the vehicle when suddenly the three-lane highway merged into a two-lane road. Flustered by the transition, and in order to not cause an accident, she rammed into the bridge wall spanning the river,” he said.
SP Patil added that Pandole said his wife was a “good driver”, but at that moment, she lost control of the wheel. The police are now awaiting the crash report from Mercedes-Benz.
The vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz GLC 220d, is with the forensics team. A preliminary report by the company’s experts had stated that the vehicle was at a speed of 100 kmph and barely seconds before the collision the driver had applied the brakes. The vehicle crashed into the wall at 89 kmph.
The police are now waiting for Dr Pandole to be discharged from hospital and be fit enough to record her statement. Pandole was discharged from hospital on October 28, 54 days after the car crash. His wife, who is in the same hospital, is still under observation and also undergoing physiotherapy.
