A motorcycle that was allegedly speeding out of a bylane in Kasba crashed into a car that was moving along the Rashbehari connector around 11.50pm on Sunday.
The car then hit a lamp post, causing it to fall.
A 24-year-old woman who was riding pillion on the bike was critically injured and the 27-year-old motorcyclist escaped with relatively minor injuries.
Police identified them as Sandip Shaw, 27, a resident of Bosepukur Road, and Bandana Das, 24, a resident of Mukundapur.
An officer of Kasba police station said “the girl was flung off the vehicle and landed on the road”.
They were taken to Ruby General Hospital, where an official said Bandana had suffered “very critical injuries” and had been admitted. Sandip was given preliminary treatment and discharged.
At least three more two-wheeler crashes were reported between Sunday night and Monday morning. Three persons were injured, two of them critically, in these accidents.
Sandip’s father, K. Shaw, told Metro on Monday that his son was dropping his friend home (at Anandapur). “He and his friend both were wearing helmets,” Shaw said.
The police said both vehicles were speeding. “It is always important to slow down at intersections. Often, two-wheelers and even slow-moving vehicles come out of bylanes and take sharp turns on a thoroughfare. Regulating the speed could have averted this collision,” an officer said.
The car, which was damaged in the collision, has been seized. The driver has been arrested.
According to Kolkata police records, two-wheeler-riders are most vulnerable to road accidents after pedestrians and contribute to the second-highest number of fatalities on the city’s roads.
The city witnessed at least three more crashes involving two-wheelers since Sunday night.
One of them was reported near PC Chandra Garden on EM Bypass around 3am on Monday. Shankha Kanshabanik, 28, apparently lost balance and skidded on the road.
Kanshabanik, a resident of Mukundapur, suffered multiple injuries and was taken to a private hospital. His vehicle has been impounded by officers of Pragati Maidan police station.
The police did not say whether he was wearing a helmet or not.
Anirban Mukherjee, 20, was riding a scooter when he crashed into a lamp post on Mahendra Banerjee Road in Parnasree around 1.30am on Monday.
The youth, a resident of Maheshtala, was not wearing a helmet, said an officer of Parnasree police station. “He suffered serious head injuries and has been admitted to SSKM Hospital,” the officer said.
The third crash was reported from DC Dey Road in Entally around 8am on Monday. Asif Hossain, 32, a resident of Madan Mohan Burman Street in north Kolkata, was riding a two-wheeler when he collided with an app cab.
Hossain, who police said was wearing a helmet, was taken to the NRS Medical College and Hospital, from where he was discharged after treatment.
According to Kolkata police records, out of the 185 people who died in road accidents in the city in 2022, as many as 43 were two-wheeler-riders.