Navi Mumbai: A six year old boy from Vashi has died in an accident due to a suspected air bag explode that happened after the car in which he was travelling rammed onto another car that had crashed against a divider.

The accident was reported on Saturday at around 11.30 pm when the deceased boy identified as Harsh Arethiya had gone for a drive with his father Mavji Arethiya and his two cousin brothers.

Mavji had taken the three boys for a drive from Vashi to Koparkhairane. When their Wagon R car reached near Blue Diamond circle, MG Astor car that was ahead of them, rammed onto a divider. The rear part of Astor car hit the bonnet of the Wagon R car with such an impact that the airbags of Wagon R got inflated thus saving the life of the father with no injury. But the same airbag allegedly became the cause of death for the son as it exploded.

After the collision, the boy was found to be unconscious and was rushed to Vashi General hospital wherein he was declared dead on arrival. “The air bag had exploded and hence we suspect that to be the cause of the death as the doctors informed that suffocation is what caused the boy to die,” assistant police inspector Deepak Gavit from Vashi police station said.

The investigation revealed that the driver of the MG Astor car, Vinod Pachade (40), was coming from Solapur and was going to his residence at Ghansoli. “Pachade is a doctor by profession and we have booked him for rash driving and causing death by negligence and have served him a notice as per the procedure,” Gavit added. The complainant father in the case, runs a business in Mumbai.