New Delhi: Team India’s wicketkeeper-cum-batter Rishabh Pant was injured in a near-fatal car accident last night, while he was driving his Mercedes from Delhi to Roorkee in Uttarakhand. The cricketer is currently undergoing treatment in Dehradun’s Max Hospital.
The accident happened in the wee hours of Friday morning. While Rishabh was driving his Mercedes alone, he reportedly dozed off and smashed his vehicle in a road divider. Though the cricketer has suffered severe injuries in his head & back and also ligament injury, it was a narrow escape from him.
Bus driver who rescued Pant
In the midst of night, a bus driver named Sushil Mann came to the prompt rescue of cricketer and helped him come out of car, caught up in flames.
Narrating the details of last night mishap, he told newsmen, “the incident happened at around 4-5 am in the morning. The SUV was coming from Delhi side while we are coming from Haridwar towards Delhi. The SUV coming at a high speed hit a divider on the road and overturned towards opposite side. I thought the car would flip over and hit us but it stopped.”
“I jumped out of the bus and reached the vehicle. I saw half hand out of car window. I pulled him outside and also asked if there was anybody inside the car. He said he was alone,” he further added.
‘I am Rishabh Pant,’ he told the bus driver. Pant asked the bus driver to call his mother but the phone was switched off.
As Rishabh Pant was badly injured & was bleeding from face, they put him on one side of the divider and also arranged clothes for him. Pant told them that there was money in the car. The driver & conductor fetched the cash from his car amounting to about Rs 7,000/- and handed over to the cricketer while the latter sat in ambulance and was taken to hospital.
The driver said he couldn’t recognize Rishabh Pant because he doesn’t watch cricket, however, some passengers recognized him.
It has been a miraculous escape for the cricketer as the intensity of crash & pictures of car turning into a ball of fire were scary enough at first look. Reports citing doctors say that the cricketer doesn’t have any serious injury & would recuperate soon.