Chennai racer Ashwin Sundar, wife killed in road accident

The car in which they were traveling caught fire after it hit a roadside tree.

Former national racing champion Ashwin Sundar who died in an accident in Chennai on Saturday. File photo

Professional car racer Ashwin Sundar, 27, and his wife Niveditha, 25, a doctor, were burnt to death as their BMW sports car, reportedly driven above permissible speed limits, caught fire after it veered around and crashed into the space between a tree and a parapet wall at MRC Nagar here in the early hours of Saturday.

Ashwin Sundar, son of businessman Shanmugasundar, had participated in many racing championships in India and abroad. He married Niveditha, of Sri Lankan origin, in February last year. The couple lived in Alapakkam near Porur.

Going to dinner

The police said that on Friday night, Ashwin and his wife were proceeding to Leela Palace Hotel for dinner in their high-end two-seater BMW Z4 car when the accident took place.

Family sources said he usually took his wife for a spin around Elliots Beach or the Marina before going home.

Sources said that at 1.45 a.m., the couple’s car went over a speed breaker, which was not illuminated, just in front of the Ambedkar Memorial on DGS Dinakaran Salai. The car then flew in the air. It hit the median on the right side and veered around, before running over the platform on the left and crashing.

Unable to open doors

The couple apparently could not open the doors, and the car instantaneously caught fire. The blaze that engulfed the car was so massive that passers-by and others could not go close enough to help them. A few passers-by shared a video of the car on Facebook Live.

Two journalists from The Hindu , who were in the vicinity, witnessed the crash and the blaze that followed.

R. Janakiraman, an advertising professional from Velachery, witnessed the accident and said the car was being driven at an excessive speed and it hit the median. “Before we could reach the car, it caught fire and huge flames engulfed the entire area. The material inside the car was exploding one after another,” he said.

Passers-by informed the police control room, and a police team from the Adyar Traffic Investigation Wing rushed to the spot. Personnel of Fire and Rescue Services reached the spot and put out the fire after half-an-hour. The charred remains of the couple were recovered and sent to the Government Royapettah Hospital for post-mortem. The car was gutted, and its mangled metal remains were taken to the police station for further investigations.