Gandhinagar, Aug 18 (IANS) A beautician was crushed to death by a speeding BMW car in Gandhinagar’s Sargasan area, the police said on Monday. The driver was detained.

Shanta Ankush Sunar, 29, was killed late on Sunday after being hit by the speeding vehicle around 11.30 p.m. while she was crossing a road near Vachani Hospital in the Sargasan area, police said.

Soon after the incident, Sunar lay bleeding on the road and died while she was being shifted to the hospital by first responders, the police said.

After knocking down the woman, who was employed in a beauty parlour, the 20-year-old driver, Amarbhai Moreshwar, fled the spot but was later detained by Infocity police, said an official.

The offending vehicle was seized by police and shifted to the police station.

The driver was also sent for a medical examination to check if he was driving under the influence of liquor or drugs, the police said.

The incident came within hours of a separate fatal accident involving a speeding SUV and a car in Surendranagar district on Sunday, in which seven people were killed after the damaged car caught fire.

The crash, which occurred around 3:30 pm, resulted in the occupants of the car getting trapped in the vehicle that caught fire.

Police confirmed that all seven occupants of the car were burnt alive, while three individuals travelling in the SUV managed to escape with minor injuries.

The incident caused a major traffic jam on the busy highway before locals, police personnel, and an emergency team reached the spot to launch rescue and relief operations.

The authorities are investigating the circumstances that led to the accident.

Gujarat has witnessed a worrying uptick in road accident injuries and fatalities in recent years, even as the total number of accidents has decreased.

In 2024, over 162,000 people were hospitalised in road accidents, averaging 19 injuries every hour across the state.

In the first seven months of that year alone, Ahmedabad reported 15,489 injury cases, while the total statewide count hit nearly 93,000, equating to 18 injuries per hour.

–IANS

rch/uk