A 55-year-old woman was killed after being knocked down by a bus that came from behind and hit her while she was boarding another bus on Taratala Road in west Kolkata on Friday morning.
Asima Hati was on her way to office and was boarding the private bus near a bus stop close to Modern Bakery on Taratala Road around 10am.
Witnesses said the two buses were involved in a race.
Police said Asima had stepped out with her sister, who had boarded the private bus for their journey to Jinjira Bazar by the time the accident occurred.
Asima had put one of her legs on the footboard while trying to board the bus when suddenly another private bus from behind hit her.
The woman fell on the road and went under one of the wheels of the bus that came speeding from the left.
Witnesses have told the police that the bus from behind was trying to overtake the one that Asima was about to board.
“Her right leg came off from the knee-joint and blood was gushing out. She couldn't move. It was a horrible sight in the morning rush hours and for a few seconds we just didn't know what to do,” Dipak Mukherjee, an eyewitness told the police. “The bus was trying to speed past the one in the front, resulting in a death.”
The police said Taratala Road usually witnesses heavy traffic during rush hours in the morning and evening. Private buses comprise most of the traffic.
Most of the passengers head for offices dotting parts of Jinjira Bazar, Hyde Road, Garden Reach Road and Brace Bridge.
Family members, including Asima's son Biswarup, told the police that every day his mother would board a private bus from the bus stop on her way to office.
“She died on the route she has been travelling for decades. Had it not been for two racing buses, my mother would have been alive,” Biswarup told the police.
People who saw the accident removed Asima from the road and informed the police. She was rushed to the emergency ward of SSKM Hospital, where doctors declared her dead.
“The two bus drivers fled. The buses have been seized,” said an officer of Taratala police station.
The police have started a case of death by negligence under Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code.