The India wicket-keeper is being treated in a Dehradun hospital after escaping with minor injuries after his car crashed and burst into flames near Roorkee early Friday.
According to Uttarakhand Police, India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who was involved in an accident in Haridwar early Friday, was not speeding and was not under the influence. CCTV footage shows the cricketer’s car colliding with a road divider near his hometown of Roorkee, seemingly at high speed.
“We’ve checked eight to ten speed cameras from the Uttar Pradesh border to the accident spot in Narsan; the cricketer’s car didn’t cross the speed limit, which is 80 km per hour on that national highway,” Haridwar senior superintendent of police Haridwar Ajai Singh said on Saturday. The car appears to be moving quickly in the CCTV footage because it was thrown into the air after hitting the divider. Our technical team also went over the accident scene. We found no evidence of the cricketer exceeding the speed limit.”
“If he was drunk, how could he drive 200 kilometres from Delhi and not have an accident for such a long distance?” said the SSP. He was completely normal, according to the doctor who gave him first aid at the Roorkee hospital. That’s how he was able to pull himself out of the car. Anyone who was inebriated would not have been able to get out of the car.”
According to Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar, the cricketer fell asleep at the wheel, causing the accident. “In the CCTV footage, the car appears to be hitting the road divider at a high speed,” said a senior police official who did not want to be identified. No action would be taken because he did not hit anyone.”
Pant, who is being treated in a Dehradun hospital, told police he dozed off at the wheel and lost control of the vehicle before it collided with a divider, toppled, and burst into flames, according to Kumar.
The 25-year-old was rescued by the driver and conductor of a Haryana Roadways bus before being taken in an ambulance to Saksham Hospital in Roorkee and then to Max Hospital in Dehradun.
