Bengaluru: Professor steps on accelerator instead of brake, car hits 3

BENGALURU: Two students and a professor suffered injuries after a car driven by another professor with the same institution ploughed into them and one parked vehicle on the campus of Maharani Cluster University here on Saturday.
Preliminary investigations revealed the motorist, H Nagaraja, 52, an English professor, had panicked while driving and pressed the accelerator hard, instead of the brake pedal.He too sustained minor injuries in the accident. The injured were rushed to St Martha's hospital, police said. tnn
The students have been identified as Ashwini, from first year BCom, and Nandu Priya, from first year BSc Data Science. The injured professor is Jyothi, 48, who teaches music at the university. Police said the incident happened at 9.45 am.
Sachin Ghorpade, DCP (Traffic West), said: "Nagaraja was trying to park the car. After taking a U-turn, by mistake, he had pressed on the accelerator of his Maruti Suzuki Celerio. Once the accelerator was pressed hard, the vehicle hit a Maruti Swift Dzire that was parked on the college premises."
Dr Shivapuji Koti, who also teaches English at the same university and was inside the parked Dzire, escaped unhurt, though the vehicle suffered major damages.
Nagaraja is being questioned about the accident, police said. While Ashwini was stuck between the two cars, Priya was thrown off after being hit by Nagaraja's car. Jyothi, meanwhile, fell on the road while trying to escape from the speeding car.
Officials from Regional Transport Office (RTO) and Forensic Sciences Laboratory visited the spot and collected samples from the site.