A 23-year-old man who was returning home with a friend on a bike died after he apparently lost control of the vehicle and rammed into the median divider on the Rashbehari connector near Kasba in south Kolkata early on Sunday, police said.
Arijit Sil, the victim, was attached to an online food aggregator. He was not on duty when the accident happened, said an officer of Kasba police station.
His friend Saikat Shaw, 21, who was riding pillion, has been admitted to hospital with multiple injuries.
Neither was wearing a helmet, the officer said.
“Both are residents of the Rajdanga area. They were returning home when Arijit Sil apparently lost control of the two-wheeler and it rammed into the median divider on the Rashbehari connector at the Bakultala crossing. The crash happened around 5.25am," the officer said.
Sil was taken to the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, where he died around half an hour later, the police said.
Shaw was first taken to Calcutta National Medical College, from where he was shifted to a private hospital in Kasba, along EM Bypass.
An officer of Kasba police station said CCTV footage shows there were no other vehicles on the spot and the two-wheeler suddenly skidded and rammed into the median divider.
The police said they would send the two-wheeler for a mechanical test to find out whether it had developed any snag.
Senior officers in the traffic department said Sil might have survived the accident if he had been wearing a helmet.
“Chances of fatality increase many more times when the riders do not wear helmets. We try to create awareness and prosecute riders for not wearing helmets, but still many choose to ride two-wheelers without the headgear,” said an officer of the traffic department.
The penalty for riding a two-wheeler without a helmet was increased from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000 in January last year for better enforcement of the rule.
The city traffic police and a group of neurosurgeons recently organised a joint awareness drive on the need to wear a helmet properly while riding a two-wheeler.
Metro Railway services disrupted
Metro services were disrupted for around an hour on Sunday after the motorman of a Dakshineswar-bound train “experienced an abnormal sound” between Sovabazar and Shyambazar stations.
As a precautionary measure, trains did not ply between Dum Dum and Central stations between 10.42am and 11.50am, said a Metro spokesperson.
“The tracks between Sovabazar and Shyambazar were checked thoroughly. A truncated service was run between Dakshineswar and Dum Dum in the north and Central and New Garia in the south. Normal services resumed after the inspection found nothing wrong,” he said.