Pregnant Indian-origin techie, unborn baby killed in road accident in Australia

Melbourne, Nov 19 (PTI) An Indian-origin techie who was eight months pregnant has died along with her unborn baby after she was hit by a car in Australia's Sydney city.

Samanvitha Dhareshwar, 33, was walking with her husband and their three-year-old son along George St in Hornsby shortly after 8 pm local time on Friday last week when a Kia car slowed at the entrance of a carpark to let the family pass.

Moments later, the Kia was rear-ended by a BMW, causing it to surge forward and hit the woman, according to a report by 7news.com, quoting police.

Emergency services treated Dhareshwar, who was just weeks away from giving birth to her second child, at the scene before she was rushed to Westmead Hospital in a critical and unstable condition, where she and her unborn baby died a short time later, police said.

According to Dhareshwar's LinkedIn profile, she was an IT systems analyst who worked for Alsco Uniforms.

The 19-year-old BMW driver and the 48-year-old Kia driver were uninjured. No other passengers were in either vehicle.

Police later arrested the teenage BMW driver, identified as Aaron Papazoglu, on Saturday. He has been charged with dangerous driving occasioning death, negligent driving occasioning death, and causing the loss of a foetus.

At a bail hearing, Magistrate Ray Plibersek refused Papazoglu’s application, describing the incident as “an absolutely tragic case”.

“It’s a terrible outcome for two families,” he said. “The community’s heart goes out to the victim’s family for the tragic loss.” PTI SCY SCY