Telugu Desam Party leader Nandamuri Harikrishna who died in an accident on Wednesday reportedly did not have his seat belt on, NDTV reported.

Nalagonda Superintendent of Police AV Ranganath said the actor-politician was thrown out of the car after it hit the median and fell on the other side of the road. “Had he used a seat belt, probably the impact would have been less and he could have survived,” Ranganath said. “According to the other passengers in the car, he did not wear a seat belt and was also driving at high speed,” he said.

Harikrishna was found about 50 feet away from where the car stopped. “...It was possibly the momentum of the vehicle that resulted in him falling so far away,” Telangana Today quoted Ranganath as saying. Two passengers who were with him in the car sustained minor injuries.

Ranganath said Harikrishna did not notice a slight curve on the road as he was asking a co-passenger for a bottle of water. Though Harikrishna tried to manoeuvre the vehicle, he could not control it and hit the median.

The superintendent of police added that there were problems with “road engineering” and that the police were trying to verify the speed at which the car was travelling using camera footage. An unidentified police official said Harikrishna was reportedly driving at around 160 kmph, according to Telangana Today.