A car that was allegedly travelling at close to 100km an hour through the airport-bound flank of VIP Road in northeast Kolkata hit a motorcycle and crashed into a truck waiting at a red light, killing four persons, around 2am on Monday, police said.
Two of those killed were on the bike. The other two victims were the driver of the car, a Mahindra XUV 300, and a woman who was seated on the front passenger seat.
Two cousins who were on the rear seat of the car are in a critical condition.
The accident happened at the Dum Dum Park intersection on VIP Road.
The accident spot on VIP Road
The impact of the crash was such that the 30-year-old woman who was on the front passenger seat was thrown out through the smashed front windscreen and she landed on the bonnet of the vehicle, a police officer said.
The driver got trapped between the steering column and the dashboard and rescuers had to use a shovel to prise open a gap to pull him out.
The police identified the dead as Hiralal Jaiswara, 46, who was at the wheel; Puja Singh, 30; Rohit Kumar, 23, who was riding the motorcycle; and his friend Babu Kundu, 25, who was riding pillion. Jaiswara drove cars for a living, a senior officer at the Bidhannagar police commissionerate said. Singh was a resident of the Narayanpur area, on the fringes of Rajarhat.
The police said it appeared that the woman was not wearing a seat belt.
An airbag had deployed on the driver’s side but it could not save him.
Cousins Kundan and Rajesh Mullick, in their 20s, who are from Howrah’s Salkia, were seated on the rear passenger seat of the car. Both are in the ICU of the RG Medical College and Hospital, the officer said. They have suffered multiple injuries, including on the head.
The Mullick family run several businesses in Salkia. The cousins help the family take care of the daily operations of the businesses, an officer at Lake Town police station said.
Kumar, who was riding the bike, worked as an LIC agent. Kundu helped his father run their plywood business.
“The vehicle was headed towards the airport. According to the data of the speed camera installed near the Lake Town crossing, it had been travelling at 95kmph. Minutes later, the driver lost control and hit the bike before ramming into the truck,” said the officer.
The police said witnesses had told them that the vehicle was moving in a zigzag way before it hit the bike.
“Witnesses have said the car was being driven at a very high speed and swerving dangerously. At the Dum Dum Park crossing, a truck was standing at a red signal and and motorbike was behind it. The car first hit the bike before crashing into the truck,” said an officer at the Bidhannagar commissionerate.