A 74-year-old man suffered a heart attack while driving a car and rammed into a guardrail before slumping in his seat in Ranikuthi on the southern fringes of Kolkata on Sunday morning, police said.
Ranendra Mohan Banerjee, a resident of Garia, was taken to hospital where he died.
Doctors said Banerjee had also suffered a head injury in the crash.
The police said he was driving from Tollygunge towards Garia through NSC Bose Road around 8.30am when he suffered a heart attack and lost control of the Wagon R.
Bystanders on the road in Ranikuthi saw the car moving erratically in a zigzag path before veering to one side and hitting a guardrail.
There were not too many vehicles on the road at the time of the accident, the police said.
“We were jolted by the sound of a car ramming into the guardrail,” said a resident. “A portion of the guardrail dented.”
Shopkeepers and others rushed to the Wagon R and saw an aged man clutching the wheel and struggling to breathe. They alerted the police.
Officers of Regent Park police station went to the spot and brought Banerjee out of the car.
“He could hardly speak. He was clutching the left side of his chest,” an officer said.
He was admitted to the Emergency ward of Baghajatin State General Hospital, where he died an hour later.
The police checked his documents and learnt he was a resident of North Srirampur in Garia.
Officers conveyed news of the accident and the death to Banerjee’s family.
Woman falls off balcony
A woman fell off the balcony of a first-floor apartment in central Kolkata’s Muchipara early on Sunday, police said.
Priyanka Das, 28, suffered multiple injuries and has been admitted to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, police said.