A mother and her two daughters enjoying a horse-cart ride on Red Road in central Kolkata got injured after a car hit the cart, flinging the three on the road on Wednesday afternoon.
The trio visiting Kolkata from Sambalpur in Odisha were identified as — Radha Agarwal, 40, and her two daughters, Priwal 18 and Prinjal 10. The are being treated at SSKM Hospital with injuries on their legs and arms, police said. The driver of the car has been arrested.
While the cart driver and the horse escaped unhurt, the car’s bonnet and one of the headlights were severely damaged in the collision that brought traffic to a temporary halt on the busy thoroughfare.
Police said they have initiated a case of rash and negligent driving against the driver. The car was towed away to Maidan police station.
The stretch of Red Road skirting the sprawling campus of Fort William, headquarters of the Eastern Army Command, is one of the favourite routes for visitors who choose to trot down the city’s Maidan area on a horse-cart.
The journey usually begins from Victoria Memorial and the cart then moves towards the South Gate of Fort William. The horse gallops down Red Road, takes a turn and the trip finally ends from where it began.
“It was around noon that the horse-cart had crossed the South Gate of Fort William and was moving towards JK Island on Red Road. A Hyundai Santro came from behind and hit the cart,” said a senior police officer.
Bystanders and a few on two-wheelers who were crossing the spot told police that the horse-drawn carriage overturned under the impact of the collision and the trio were flung off on the road.
The driver of the carriage, too, fell down as one of the cart’s main iron rods had come off but received no injuries. The horse moved ahead with a neigh as the cart first tilted to its right and then overturned.
“The spot is commonly known as ghora pass cutout owing to the presence of a cut in the median divider that allows such carts to take a U-turn,” the officer said. “The driver of the car had a close shave and escaped without any injuries.”
Several owners of horsedrawn carriages, some of which have been redesigned as chariots with leather convertibles, said they have been waiting for this Yuletide season to make up for their pandemic-induced losses over the last two years.
“The last two years have been a disaster. Some of our colleagues had to leave the horses and return home unable to cope with the losses,” said Ashfaque Hossain, a horse-cart owner from Rabindra Sarani in north Kolkata.
“We just hope tourists don’t shy away from hiring carts for the afternoon joyrides in Maidan after this accident.”