“He [Pant] is stable and recovering well. BCCI doctors are in touch with doctors at this hospital. BCCI would take a call on whether he has to be shifted anywhere for the best treatment. Pant told me he tried to avoid a pothole when the accident occurred,” Sharma told reporters after meeting the cricketer.
Rishabh Pant trying to escape a pothole resulted in the accident. As per the police, he did not cross the speed lim… https://t.co/9kiZv4GP7G
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Earlier, it was reported that the cricketer dozed off at the wheel, causing the accident. Pant, currently under treatment in a Dehradun hospital, had reportedly told the police he dozed off at the wheel and lost control of the car before it hit a divider, toppled and burst into flames.
“Pant had told the local police that he lost control on his car after he dozed off for a couple of seconds. The police is investigating the case,” Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar had said.
On Saturday, Uttarakhand Police said that Pant wasn’t speeding and was not under the influence. CCTV footage of the incident shows the car driven by the cricketer hit the road divider near his hometown Roorkee, seemingly at a high speed.
“We’ve checked eight to 10 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. In the CCTV footage, the car appears to be at a high speed because it was tossed in the air after hitting the divider. Our technical team also inspected the accident site. We didn’t find anything that suggests overspeeding by the cricketer,” Haridwar senior superintendent of police, Haridwar Ajai Singh said on Saturday.
“If he would have been drunk, how could he drive 200 km from Delhi and not meet with any accident for such a long distance? The doctor who gave him first aid at the Roorkee hospital also stated he was completely normal. That’s why he was able to successfully pull himself out of the car. Anybody drunk would not have been able to get out of the car,” the SP added.
On Friday, BCCI had issued a statement on Pant’s injuries.
“Rishabh has two cuts on his forehead, a ligament tear in his right knee and has also hurt his right wrist, ankle, toe and has suffered abrasion injuries on his back. Rishabh’s condition remains stable, and he has now been shifted to Max Hospital, Dehradun, where he will undergo MRI scans to ascertain the extent of his injuries and formulate his further course of treatment,” the statement read.
(With inputs from agencies)
