HYDERABAD: An eight-year-old boy died after an electric delivery auto he tried to drive rammed into an electric pole near the Amma Balamma Temple in Ashok Nagar on Friday evening. The victim, Potharasu Akshay Kumar, a Class 4 student, was playing near his house when he noticed an unattended delivery vehicle parked close to the temple, Afzalgunj sub-inspector K. Niranjan said.
“The driver had parked the vehicle in a hurry and forgot to turn off the main switch. Akshay, while playing with his friends, pressed the push button and then the accelerator, unaware that the vehicle would start moving,” Niranjan said.
The auto, which had a keyless ignition system, picked up speed and crashed into a power pole about 20 feet away. The impact flung Akshay forward, shattering the windscreen and he suffered severe head and facial injuries, police said.
Hearing the crash, his friend Anup alerted Akshay’s father, Phakeerappa, who rushed out and found his son lying unconscious on the road, bleeding from his mouth and nose. The family rushed him to Osmania General Hospital, where he died while undergoing treatment.
Akshay was the younger of two sons. His father, an auto driver, had separated from his wife, and the children lived with him, police said. The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem and the last rites were performed on Saturday. Police registered a case of unnatural death. The family told police that the accident occurred due to Akshay’s mistake and declined to file a complaint against the vehicle’s driver, Niranjan added.
