Three young men, including two cousins and an engineering student, tragically died when their speeding car crashed into a Pune Metro pillar PUNE: Three young men died after their speeding car crashed into a pillar of Pune Metro’s Bund Garden station around 4.30am on Sunday.Somwar Peth resident Yash Bhandari (23) and Pimpri resident Om Bhandari (23), both engineers with private firms and cousins, died on the spot. The third victim, Khushwant Tekwani (20), an engineering student hailing from Beed district, succumbed at Sassoon General Hospital while undergoing treatment for critical injuries. Om was driving the hatchback car, Tekwani was in the passenger seat, and Yash was in the rear seat, said an officer from the Koregaon Park police station. Police were ascertaining how Tekwani was connected to the cousins.The car was mangled in the crash. CCTV camera footage showed the out-of-control car spinning once before crashing into the pillar at full speed. Police said the vehicle had been heading towards Bund Garden Bridge from Mangaldas chowky at high speed.”We are yet to get full details of where the three men were during the night, and how exactly the accident occurred. The spinning of the car indicates the driver may have tried to apply the handbrake to control the speeding vehicle. One of the victims had left home on Saturday night after telling his mother he was going out for dinner and would return in some time,” a police officer said.When asked if it was a case of driving under the influence of alcohol, deputy commissioner of police (Zone-II) Milind Mohite told TOI, “Our team found beer bottles in the car. However, a medical report is awaited and the same will confirm if the person at the wheel was driving the car under the influence of alcohol. A postmortem examination has been conducted, and viscera has been preserved.”Yash and Om’s uncle Arun Bhandari told TOI, “The cousins were scholars. Om lost his father at a young age. He completed his engineering and then went abroad on a scholarship for higher studies. He also worked there to support his studies. After returning home, he started working in a private firm. He is survived by his sister and mother, who runs a garment business.””Yash had completed engineering and recently joined an IT firm in Baner. He lived with his mother and maternal uncle in Somwar Peth. His mother is a teacher,” the uncle added.Yash’s neighbour from Somwar Peth recalled that he had been a studious boy since childhood. “He was also health-conscious and loved bodybuilding,” the neighbour said.Sudhir Kotian, a cook from an eatery under the Bund Garden Metro Station, told TOI, “I woke up and came out of our eatery on hearing a loud thud. I saw a mangled car in the front. The driver’s side of the car was badly damaged, and the driver was lying unconscious. The car’s rear windscreen was damaged, and one person was lying unconscious there.”Another person was in the front seat, he said. “With the help of some locals, we pulled this person out of the car. He had lost consciousness. There was an injury only on his nose. We sent him to a hospital. The driver of the car was stuck inside the vehicle. He was taken out of the car from the rear side of the car.”
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