A traffic sergeant of Kolkata police died in a road accident while on duty after his motorbike skidded over a cratered Basanti Highway on the eastern fringes of Kolkata and he crashed into the road receiving fatal injuries on Monday afternoon.
Police said Sashi Bhushan Minj, 32, father of one, was attached with Tiljala traffic guard and had joined duty at 2pm when the incident happened.
He was on motorcycle patrol duty at Bantala Kantapukur when the bike skidded.
According to a police officer who spoke to witnesses, a vehicle was coming from the opposite direction when Minj had maneuvered his motorcycle to avoid collision with the vehicle and landed into a huge crater.
“Once the bike fell into the crater, the bike lost control and crashed on the road. Minj’s helmet came off. The bike skidded through the next few meters dragging Minj with his head hitting the road all along,” said an officer.
He was taken to a private hospital on EM Bypass where he was declared dead. The incident happened around 3.45pm.
Basanti Highway that is one of the important connectors of the city with the adjoining districts has a long history of accidents and complaints of bad road conditions. The stretch where the incident happened is dotted with craters, does not have speed barriers and is ill illuminated at night, a section of the residents in the area alleged.
Incidents of motorcycle crashes, trucks and lorries getting disbalanced and falling off the thoroughfares and pedestrians and cyclists getting killed in road accidents are common on Basanti Highway.
However, there is an apparent lack of interest or attention among the administration to repair the roads through which thousands of people travel every day.
Sources in the police said there were many more similar stretches on Basanti Highway that were equally ill-kept and caused inconvenience to motorists and pedestrians alike.
“We have lost a colleague today. Had the road conditions been not like this, he would have been alive,” said an officer of the traffic department.