MUMBAI: A speeding BMW that crashed through a barrier on Mumbai’s Coastal Road and plunged off a bridge, killing three students on Sunday, was involved in a separate incident and had an FIR lodged at Gamdevi police station in March this year for overspeeding. A video of the six-month-old incident has now surfaced on social media.Omkar Shirke, who filed the complaint, was travelling with his wife when the BMW hit them on March 29. Shirke had also recorded a video of the incident at the time. The footage, now circulating widely on social media, shows Shirke and a man driving the BMW during the March incident.The complaint had been filed before Sunday’s accident, in which three occupants of the BMW were killed and another was critically injured after the high-end car plunged from Mumbai’s Coastal Road.At least six people have died in accidents on the Coastal Road since it opened in March 2024. The toll rises to seven if the connected BKC stretch is included.Fatal Coastal Road crash: Three students killed, one injuredThree students, including a minor, were killed and another was injured after the BMW crashed through a Coastal Road barrier at high speed and fell about 75 metres into an under-construction site near Lotus Jetty in Worli around 5.20am on Sunday. CCTV footage showed the car speeding before plunging from the second-level ramp, a height of about 70ft, while heading towards Haji Ali from Marine Drive.Police said the driver appeared to have lost control while speeding. The deceased were identified as Dhairya Sheth, 17, Aditya Jakasania, 19, and Shanay Gajjar, 21, who was driving his family car. Aditya Oswal, 23, suffered multiple injuries and is being treated at BYL Nair Hospital. All four were from Gujarat and were studying at two colleges in Mumbai.The crash came to light after a motorist alerted the police control room that a vehicle had fallen from the road. A police team reached the area and, while trying to locate the exact spot, was directed there by a watchman who had witnessed the accident. The four occupants were taken by ambulance to Nair Hospital, where doctors declared three of them dead.CCTV footage showed the BMW speeding before the crash. The impact was severe: one victim was thrown about 20ft from the car, while another was found outside the vehicle. Police said Gajjar, who was driving, was still partly inside the car, with his leg on the accelerator. All airbags had deployed.Police traced the BMW through its registration number and contacted Gajjar’s father, who arrived in Mumbai to claim his son’s body.Gajjar and Oswal were studying architecture at a college in Kurla, while Sheth and Jakasania were students at a well-known management college in the western suburbs. The four were staying in hostels or as paying guests in Santacruz and Juhu.Senior inspector Mina Jagtap of Tardeo police said blood samples of the victims had been collected and would be sent to the Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory. The postmortems were conducted at Nair Hospital.Police said they would register accidental death cases and also cases under relevant provisions for causing death by negligence and rash and negligent driving. Police did not confirm reports that one of the victims was wearing a party ribbon.
Families in Ahmedabad
In Ahmedabad, a pall of gloom descended on the homes of Gajjar and Jakasania after news of their deaths reached their families.At Gajjar’s home in Swastik Society, Navrangpura, relatives gathered as his parents left for Mumbai.“Everybody here is in a state of shock. We are still processing the events,” a relative said.Jakasania’s family had also left their home at Shompole Apartment near Sindhu Bhavan for Mumbai. Residents said the family was in shock and awaiting the medico-legal formalities before the body is brought to Ahmedabad.
