A shop worker has sustained serious injuries this week after an SUV parked outside his store suddenly accelerated and drove into him, knocking him to the ground.
According to video footage of the incident that was published by Al Sharq, the incident took place outside a small supermarket in Bin Omran at 1:30pm on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
The Youtube video, which some readers may find disturbing, appears to be an excerpt of the store’s CCTV coverage.
The shopkeeper, who hails from the southern Indian state of Kerala, can be seen standing outside the store arranging newspapers on a rack, with a row of cars parked about 5m behind him.
What happened
He can then be seen bending down to pick up a bundle of papers and as he stands up, a black SUV suddenly accelerates towards him at significant speed, crushing him against the front glass wall of the shop.
The short clip also shows a man dressed in a white thobe being thrown to the ground from the open driver’s side door.
It was not immediately clear what caused the car to accelerate.
The incident took place outside New Taif Supermarket. The injured employee suffered a broken right leg and was rushed by ambulance to Hamad General Hospital where he is expected to undergo surgery today, his colleague told Doha News this morning.
The 42-year-old man’s name is Raju, and he has lived in Doha for 18 years. His wife and two children are in Kerala.
A woman who was apparently in the car at the time of the incident and is believed to be the driver’s wife was also taken to the hospital by ambulance,, the Peninsula reports. Police were called to the scene, the newspaper added.
This is not the first time a car crashing into a building in Qatar has gained public attention.
Last February, a video of a silver sedan crashing through a Ferrari/Maserati showroom at the Pearl-Qatar went viral.
In 2011, footage emerged of a Toyota Land Cruiser barreling through the storefront of an Al Zaman Currency Exchange branch in Al Khor. And a few years before that, an FJ Cruiser jumped a curb and smashed through one of La Cigale Hotel’s window panes.
Each incident always sparks renewed conversations about road safety in Qatar, where traffic accident are among the leading causes of death.
Thoughts?
