Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh municipal administration minister P Narayana’s son, P Nishit, died in a road accident in Hyderabad in the wee hours of Wednesday.

His friend, Raja Ravichand Verma, also died in the accident. Their Mercedes Benz hit a pillar that belonged to the Hyderabad Metro Rail.

Twenty-two-year-old Nishit was the director of the family-owned Narayana Group of Educational institutions.

The accident occurred at around 3am on road No 36, Jubilee Hills, when Nishit, who was trying to negotiate a sharp curve and avoiding a pool of rain water, hit the pillar, police said.

Even though the air bags of Merc G63 opened, the impact of the collision was such that they could not save the lives of the two occupants. Nishit was driving.

While he died of the impact of the steering wheel on his chest, his friend was hit in the stomach and his liver was badly impacted, said doctors at Apollo Hospital where the post-mortem was done.

The front portion of the car was badly shattered. “It took us one-and-a-half hours to extricate the occupants. By the time both had died,” said S Venkat Reddy, police inspector of Jubilee Hills.

Police and doctors believe that speeding had caused the mishap. Over night heavy rains had inundated the road.

The duo was returning home from a party when the accident happened. Concerns of intoxication were expressed. However, Dr Surinder Reddy, forensic expert at Apollo, said Nishit was not drunk.

The news of Nishit’s death sent waves of shock as his father, P Narayana, who was on a visit to London rushed back to India. A pall of gloom descended on Narayana’s home in Hyderabad and Nishit’a wife, Ramadevi, was in shock. A large number of VIPs including deputy chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Chinna Rajappa and Kadiyam Srihari, and union minister Sujana Chowdhary rushed to his home.

Later, Nishit’s body was sent to his hometown, Nellore, where the cremation will take place on Thursday.

Narayana is the latest addition to the long list of VIPs who lost their children in road accidents. They include former ministers K Venkat Reddy, film actors-turned-politicians Babub Mohan, Kota Srinivas, former MP Harikrishna and former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin.