Three persons travelling in a car died after the vehicle collided with a bus on National Highway (NH) 16 at Barunda in Howrah’s Bagnan on Tuesday morning.
The car was reduced to a mangled mass. Police had to bring in a gas cutter to slice the car up and bring out the bodies.
The deceased, all in their early 30s, have been identified as Dipak Pandit of Chandrakona in Paschim Medinipur, Pritam Chakrabarty of Kotwali in Paschim Medinipur and Sanjit Mahata of Lalgarh in Jhargram.
The car was headed towards Kolkata while the bus was travelling at a high speed towards Digha from Habra in North 24-Parganas district, the police said.
Around 8.15am, the driver of the Hyundai car somehow lost control and veered towards the Kolaghat-bound lane of the highway and came in front of the bus, eyewitnesses have told police.
The bus driver could not do anything to avoid the collision that left the car driver’s body stuck in the steering wheel. Passengers of the bus escaped with minor injuries, the police said.
“The bus pushed the car a few metres before coming to a halt. Those inside the car were trapped,” said Manas Mondal, an eyewitness.
Since it was early in the morning, the highway had fewer vehicles and those who were travelling moved at high speed.