A teenage scooterist died after the two-wheeler was hit by a speeding Mercedes Benz in the Maidan area early on Sunday, police said.
Mohammad Faizan Ansari, 19, his cousin Mohammad Rizwan Ansari, 23, and a minor boy — all from the Metiabruz area — were on their way to the Maidan on the scooter to play cricket when the accident happened on Kidderpore Road, near the South gate of Fort William.
The police said none of the three was wearing a helmet.
Faizan, who died in the crash, was a second-year student at Hari Mohan Ghosh College in Garden Reach. Rizwan works in a soft-drink manufacturing company in Taratala and the minor studies in Class IX.
The man who was at the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz, Imran Ali Mullick, 28, runs an automobile parts showroom in Park Circus, the police said.
“Mullick is a resident of Elliot Road, while the man seated next to him, Faizan Rahi, 28, is from Royd Street,” an officer of the traffic department said. “They were returning from New Town.”
Mullick and Rahi have been arrested under IPC Section 304 (part II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder with the knowledge of consequences of his or her action), Section 185(B) of the motor vehciles act (driving under the influence of a drug to such an extent as to be incapable of exercising proper control over the vehicle) and other charges.
The three who were on the scooter were flung off the two-wheeler when it was hit by the car from behind.
The Mercedes-Benz was intercepted on Red Road.
The youths and the boy were taken to SSKM Hospital, where Faizan was declared dead. The other two have been admitted to the hospital with critical injuries, the police said.
“The riders were going to the Maidan to play cricket when the car, which was moving at a high speed, hit it from behind. Faizan died on the spot, while my son Rizwan fractured his right leg. The other person on the scooter suffered head injuries,” said Rizwan’s father Mohammad Firoz Ansari.
The police said the impact of the crash on the scooter shows the car was running at a high speed.
“The scooter was turned into a mass of mangled metal after the collision and the riders were thrown off a few metres,” an officer said.
Ansari said that every Sunday the boys would head to the Maidan to play cricket.
An officer of the fatal squad of the traffic department said both vehicles have been seized.
“Both will be subjected to forensic and mechanical tests. It is important to ascertain the speed at which the Mercedes was moving. The mechanical test will determine whether any glitch led to the crash,” the officer said.
Kidderpore Road and the adjoining arteries such as Red Road have witnessed several early-morning accidents involving speeding cars.
In January 2016, an Audi Q7 had breached multiple police barricades and fatally hit a corporal of the air force on Casuarina Avenue during the rehearsals for the Republic Day Parade.
The same year, in September, a Honda City that had a minor at its wheel hit and killed a horse that was trying to cross Red Road.
Speeding is common on Red Road and the adjoining thoroughfares in the morning because of the smooth surface and the fact that the stretches have very little traffic at
that hour.