The 75-year-old pedestrian who was injured in a pile-up in Thakurpukur on Monday morning died late at night.
Police said Nirmal Kumar Das was a former Bengal police officer who had retired from the state CID as a sub-inspector.
“The deceased man is a retired police person. He suffered multiple injuries on his head. He died at SSKM Hospital late on Monday,” said an officer of the traffic department.
Das is survived by his wife, son and daughter-in-law.
The police said Das, a resident of Purba Putiary, was going to his ancestral home for which he was to board an autorickshaw when the accident happened.
According to eyewitness accounts, two buses — one on the Dharmatala-Namkhana route and the other heading to Salt Lake from Amtala — were speeding along Diamond Harbour Road when the vehicles apparently lost control and crashed.
One of them rammed into a roadside fruit shop and hit
the pedestrian who was waiting to board an autorickshaw. The other hit two cars and mounted them before slamming against a Metro railway pillar.
Sources said the owners of the two buses have been contacted and details of both drivers have been collected.
“We are trying all possible ways to apprehend the drivers. The exact sequence of events would be clear once they are arrested,” said the officer.
A case of causing death due to negligence and rash and negligent driving has been drawn up against both bus drivers.
Buses of the same route racing each other, buses stopping in the middle of the road to pick up passengers and speeding off without caring if a passenger had got off or properly boarded are some of the common violations that are often reported across the city.
The accident on Monday had resulted in 21 others getting injured. They were treated and discharged from the hospital.
