Five persons — a pedestrian and four occupants of three cars — were injured in a pile-up at the intersection of AJC Bose Road and Shakespeare Sarani in south-central Kolkata on Tuesday morning.
The pile-up disrupted traffic on Shakespeare Sarani and the adjoining thoroughfares, including AJC Bose Road, Rawdon Street and Loudon Street, for almost an hour.
Police said the driver of a BMW that was plying along Shakespeare Sarani and heading towards Park Circus apparently lost control as he was feeling unwell and rammed into another car at the Shakespeare Sarani and AJC Bose Road crossing.
As a result of the impact of the collision, the second car hit another car which was heading from Mullickbazar towards Park Circus.
An elderly man was inside the third car with his granddaughter, on their way to her school in the Park Circus area, and a pedestrian walking along Shakespeare Sarani was also injured in the crash.
Out of the five injured, four were taken to Belle Vue Clinic.
“Four persons were brought to the emergency ward of the hospital. Three of them had minor injuries and were discharged after preliminary treatment. One of them had to be admitted,” said an official of the Belle Vue Clinic.
The police identified the injured pedestrian as Avijit Ghosh, 30, a resident of Shakespeare Sarani.
Goutam Giri, 48, the driver of the BMW had a fracture and had to be admitted, while Harini B. Rathi, 38, who was in the same car, was given first-aid for a bleeding injury on her face.
“We have learned that Goutam Giri had started feeling unwell and had apparently lost control of the steering,” said an officer of the traffic department.
Subir Saha, 33, who was driving the second car and Basanta Kumar Dutta, 75, who was going to drop his granddaughter to school in the third car, were also injured. The granddaughter escaped unhurt.
Officers of Shakespeare Sarani police station impounded the three vehicles and started a case against the BMW driver for rash and negligent driving.