A youth riding a motorcycle was flung off the two-wheeler after its handlebar got entangled with a bicycle’s handle and was run over by a bus on the Major Arterial Road (MAR) in New Town around Monday noon, police said.
A young woman who was riding pillion and the cyclist landed on the grass of the divider between the MAR and a service lane and escaped with cuts and bruises.
“Sayantan Basu, 25, the bike rider, fell on the road and a bus that was behind the two-wheeler could not stop in time,” an officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said.
“Basu, a garments trader from Serampore in Hooghly, was on his way to drop a friend to an office in New Town, near the Unitech intersection, when the accident happened on the Salt Lake-bound flank of the MAR, close to Mother’s Wax Museum. Basu and the pillion rider both were wearing
helmets.”
Basu, who was headed towards the Kolkata Gate intersection, had just crossed the Mother’s Wax Museum when he tried to overtake the bicycle.
“While he was trying to overtake the bicycle, the handlebar of his bike got entangled with the bicycle’s handle and he lost control of the two-wheeler,” the officer said.
“Basu and the pillion rider both were flung off the bike,” the officer added.
“Basu landed on the carriageway and was crushed under the wheel of the bus that was behind the two-wheeler. The woman who was on the pillion and the cyclist landed on the median divider and suffered minor injuries.”
An officer of the New Town traffic guard said that it appeared from the deep tyre marks on the road that the driver of the bus had tried to slam the brakes hard, but the front wheel of the bus went over Basu.
Passing motorists alerted a team of traffic cops on duty at the Westin Hotel intersection. They took Basu to the Salt Lake Sub-divisional Hospital, where he was declared dead.
“The helmet Basu was wearing cracked after the wheel of the bus went over it,” the officer said.
A doctor who examined Basu said: “He was unconscious when he was brought to the hospital. We could not revive him.”
In February, a Class VII student of The Newtown School, who was riding pillion on her mother’s scooter, died after she fell off the two-wheeler when its handle got snagged on the truck’s rear fender and was crushed under the wheels of the giant vehicle.
The accident prompted the traffic wing of the Bidhannagar commissionerate to organise traffic awareness workshops in areas under all nine traffic guards. Two-wheeler-riders were told about safe riding techniques and practices at the workshops.
On Saturday afternoon, a 48-year-old man who was riding down the airport-bound flank of the MAR was killed after a car hit his motorcycle from behind near the Owl More, not far from the spot where Basu died.