A man riding a scooter along Dufferin Road in the Maidan area suffered fatal injuries after the two-wheeler climbed the footpath and fell on the road early on Monday.
Police said Asfaque Ahmed, 41, was not wearing a helmet when the scooter crashed into the footpath.
“Ahmed was a resident of Ekbalpore Road. Around 12.50am on Monday, his two-wheeler lost balance and went up on the footpath along Dufferin Road near the Gandhi statue,” said an officer of the Maidan police station.
Ahmed was taken to SSKM Hospital with multiple injuries where he was declared dead. The vehicle has been seized and will be subjected to a mechanical test to ascertain if it had a glitch.
Officers of the traffic department said they were probing the exact sequence of the crash.
“We will collect CCTV footage from the cameras closest to the spot to check the sequence of the crash,” said the officer.
The police said “speeding” and “not wearing a helmet” while riding two-wheelers was the biggest cause of death of two-wheeler riders in the city.
A senior officer of Kolkata police said in a majority of the cases where two-wheeler drivers die in a crash, the accidents are either because of over speeding or injuries to the head for not wearing a helmet.
According to police records, after pedestrian deaths, two-wheeler rider and pillion rider deaths contributed to maximum fatalities in the city.
“Two-wheeler riders are most vulnerable after pedestrians. Helmet and negotiating speed are two mandatory factors that any two-wheeler rider should follow for safe rides,” said an officer of the traffic department.
On Monday, Ahmed is suspected to have travelled at a high speed along the empty stretch, the police said.