Two sisters — a teacher and a hotel executive — and their driver had a miraculous escape when a traffic signal crashed on their car in the middle of a 90kmph Nor’wester around 4.30pm on Saturday.
Parineeta Jaiswal, 37, who is a senior executive with a chain of hotels in Gujarat, and her sister Aparajita, 41, a teacher in Calcutta, were returning home from Shyambazar when the signal post landed on their WagonR at Hedua in north Calcutta.
“We were returning to our Amherst Street home when the weather became rough. The sky turned black and then the wind started blowing. Our driver was hurrying to take us home. We were passing through the Hedua crossing when suddenly we heard a very loud sound,” Parineeta recalled.
“The next moment, I saw that a huge traffic signal was collapsing and about to crash right on our car,” she said.
Describing it as one of the “worst moments” of her life, Parineeta said she and her sister screamed, not knowing what else to do. “But our driver Manoj used his reflex and put the car in reverse immediately. The signal post fell on our car but at least we had space left to open the door and come out,” she said.
Parineeti, who had come to Calcutta for her mother’s medical treatment, had dialled 100 to alert the police.
Traffic cops and a patrol team went to the spot but the Jaiswals had to wait till the traffic signal was removed.
The police said it had started raining heavily by then and the work to disconnect the power supply to the signal before removing it could not be done before the rain stopped.
A CESC official said they received information about the incident around 6pm from the local police station.
“Our team went to the spot, disconnected the power supply of the area from the feeder box till the lamp post was removed,” said a senior CESC official.
The two sisters returned home without a scratch but with a damaged car.
Incidents of trees getting uprooted during a squall or a Nor’wester are common in Calcutta, mostly because of unscientific plantation and poor upkeep of the trees.
However, the police said, a traffic signal post with a concrete base getting uprooted and collapsing on a car was unusual.
“Traffic signal posts are planted in concrete structures that are erected in the ground following proper engineering. We will have to review this incident and see if anything was wrong with this particular signal post,” said a senior officer of the traffic department in Calcutta police.
“The occupants of the car had a narrow escape. A traffic signal post is extremely heavy and carries electrical connections as well. Thankfully nothing happened to any of the three occupants. Luckily there were no pedestrians in that stretch at that time,” said another traffic police officer.
Lamp post collapse
A lamp post was uprooted on Ram Seth Road in Jorabagan during the Nor’wester on Saturday. No one was injured, the police said.