RURAL Development Minister Gopinath Munde always chose to travel in his Toyota Lexus and would buy a new car of the same brand and colour ? white ? every three years. But on Tuesday, he was being driven in a Maruti SX4 car when he met with the fatal accident in Delhi.
Munde had told The Indian Express earlier this year that he preferred the Lexus as he found it safe and comfortable. ?I suffered a serious neck injury after a stage on which I was sitting collapsed. Since then I have had problems with my neck and cannot move it normally. So I only use the Lexus which is the biggest car in the segment and is comfortable for someone with my condition,? Munde had said.
He had said he had been using the same brand of car for the past 12 years. ?This is the third or fourth car of the same brand that I am using. I change it every three years,? Munde had said. He was known to use the vehicle to criss-cross the entire state.
Over the past few years, Munde had faced some serious accidents which affected his mobility. Apart from the stage collapse accident in the 1990s, he fractured an arm in a road accident in 2007 when his vehicle went off the road in an attempt to save a child at Parli.