A woman travelling by an autorickshaw lost her right arm after a goods vehicle grazed the three-wheeler in Howrah’s Uluberia on Saturday morning.
Reba Mondal was on her way to join duty at a private nursing home and was seated on the side rear seat, police said.
The incident took place on Odisha Trunk (OT) Road in Uluberia around 7am.
Eyewitnesses told police that the autorickshaw was heading towards Uluberia Station Road when a goods vehicle tried to speed past it.
The autorickshaw was hit and the woman realised that her right hand was severed from the elbow.
She fell on the road and lost consciousness while the severed hand lay on the road, at a distance, the police said later in the day.
As Mondal lay with blood spouting from her right arm, a section of bystanders rushed to her rescue along with the other passengers from the auto.
The rescuers carried the arm to a hospital along with Mondal.
“The victim was first taken to Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Medical College and Hospital in Uluberia and later shifted to the SSKM Hospital,” said an officer of Uluberia police station.
“We are trying to trace the goods vehicle,” the officer added.
At SSKM Hospital, doctors at the plastic surgery department said Mondal’s wound was very severe. They were busy stabilising the patient before considering performing surgery to join the severed arm.
The loss of time in bringing both the patient and her arm was crucial and it could decide the fate of the operation, they said.
A section of residents in Uluberia complained that auto rickshaws and goods vehicles did not follow any traffic rules.
The lack of adequate police aggravated the situation inthe area, particularly in the morning and evening peak hours.
“OT Road in Uluberia is very chaotic and several hundreds of commuters use this road in the morning to go to their respective places of work. The police presence is negligible,” said Anil Jana, a resident of the area.
“We just hope the woman recovers,” he said.
Body found
Garfa: The body of a 62-year-old woman was found floating in a pond in Salak Pally of Garfa around 7am on Saturday.
Police identified her as Runa Chowdhury. She was declared dead at MR Bangur Hospital.