A 14-year-old boy, who was driving his family’s car, died as the vehicle fell off a car lift-shaft in a highrise in South Mumbai. The driver employed by the family, who was seated next to the boy, was also found dead. The minor was identified as Hafeez Patel while the family driver was identified as Javed Ahmed Shaikh.

The CCTV footage of the building showed that Patel was learning to drive a car. When he drove on the lift-shaft on the second-floor in reverse, he lost control of the vehicle and fell nearly 50 feet down.

This is the second case of accidental death wherein minors have been driving the vehicle. Earlier, this month, a speeding Mercedes being driven by an underage boy had killed 32-year old Sidhartha Sharma in Delhi’s Civil Lines area. Before running into Sharma, the teenaged boy had narrowly missed an accident with two motorcycles.

As many as 1.62 lakh road accidents were caused by underage drivers and those without licences between 2012 and 2014, minister of state for road transport and highways, Pon Radhakrishnan had told the Rajya Sabha in December 2015. Accidents caused by drivers without licences, during this period, was 1.01 lakh.

It is noteworthy that section 180 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, provides for punishment of imprisonment or fine or both for the offence of an owner or persons in-charge of vehicle permitting an unlicensed person or under-aged person to drive it.