A private bus packed with passengers rammed into cars standing at a red light on SP Mukherjee Road in Tollygunge on Wednesday morning.
At least two persons — an elderly woman and her driver — were injured.
Police said seven cars were damaged in the pile-up. The driver of the bus, on route 41, told police that the vehicle’s brake malfunctioned, leading to the accident.
The accident near Charu Market police station happened two days after the crash at the Lake Town crossing on VIP Road, where three law-abiding Calcuttans patiently waiting in their car for the traffic signal to turn green had to pay with their lives. The driver of the car suffered critical head injuries.
The car was hit from behind by an allegedly stolen bus whose driver police said was fleeing a chasing cop squad.
The crash on Wednesday happened around 10.45am when the thoroughfare was congested with cars and two-wheelers.
The first to take the impact of the collision was a Hyundai i10, in which south Kolkata residents Rohit Parekh and his son Amit were travelling.
The car was waiting for the signal to turn green when there was “a huge jerk” from behind.
“This bus had rammed into our car and was pushing us further. I was applying the brake but my car was not stopping. It hit the car in the front,” Amit told Metro.
The i10 was left with a smashed rear.
The bus apparently tried to steer clear of the cars in front of it but ended up hitting more cars on its way.
In one of the other cars hit by the bus was T. Kaur, a resident of Tollygunge, who was on her way to meet her daughter in Hazra. Her car, too, was stationary at the signal when the bus rammed into it from behind.
“My mother is a senior citizen and had her cataract operation barely a month ago. Unfortunately, as a result of the huge jerk, she hit the same eye and an arm. She has blood clots in the eye that was operated on. One of her arms is now swollen with blue-black patches. I took her to the eye specialist. Her arm’s X-ray is pending,” Kaur’s daughter said.
The rear bumper of Kaur’s i20 was ripped off under the impact of the crash and got stuck in the bus’s front bumper.
“My car suffered the maximum damage. But I am more worried about my mother’s eye and arm. Our driver is also hurt. The physical injuries will heal but this mental trauma will take time to recover,” the daughter said.
The driver of the bus has been arrested and charged under IPC sections related to rash and negligent driving. “The driver said the brake of the bus had failed. The bus will be sent for a mechanical test to find out whether any snag led to the accident,” said an officer of Tollygunge police station.
The eight-year-old bus has 25 traffic violation cases pending against it, the police said.
This newspaper contacted the owner of the bus, Tapan Biswas, who said he was aware of the accident.
Biswas mentioned another person and said he was “looking after the bus operation part”. This newspaper contacted the second person, who refused to speak and disconnected the call.
Like in any road accident in the city, some of the cars that were less damaged drove away from the crash site. There could be many more injured this newspaper could not reach out to.
“Motorists and motorcyclists waiting at a red light are vulnerable to accidents in the city,” a Rashbehari resident said.
A year before the Lake Town accident killed Shivshankar Rathi, his son Shrivatsa and mother Kamala, New Alipore resident Minu Dhandhania was killed while she was waiting in her car with her family at a red light on EM Bypass.