Two people were crushed to death and four others, including a child, were critically injured when the car they were travelling in had a head-on collision with a bus near Phulia on NH12 in Nadia on Sunday afternoon.

Police said that the Calcutta-bound private bus from Royganj had entered the wrong lane when the driver of the car, which was running at a high speed, failed to control the vehicle and rammed into it. Local residents, hearing the loud noise of the crash, rushed to the spot and had a difficult time rescuing the victims from the mangled remains of the vehicle.

The victims were rushed to the Ranaghat subdivisional hospital, where two people were declared dead on arrival. The accident occurred at Prafullanagar around 12.40pm.

The driver of the vehicle, Abhijit Mondal, was one of the dead. The other dead victim was an elderly woman who remained unidentified.

Vinay Patel, a senior manager of a health insurance company from Belgharia, his wife Priyanka and their 11-year-old daughter Pihu, who were going to the Iskcon temple at Mayapur, are among the injured.

Police and witnesses held the driver of the bus responsible for the accident. The police seized the bus, but its driver managed to flee.

A passenger of the bus said: “There was a traffic jam on NH12 on the Calcutta-bound lane. The driver of the bus, in a bid to get out, entered the Krishnagar-bound lane at a diversion, without waiting for the approaching vehicles. That is when the car rammed into it."

Local residents in Phulia have alleged that a section of careless drivers of buses and trucks often takes illegal diversions, entering the opposite lane, causing threats to vehicles running on that lane.

“The widening of NH12 has been underway, which often causes traffic jams. But there is little traffic management by police, which is often exploited by reckless drivers," said Banik Roy, a Phulia resident.

A senior police officer, however, denied the allegation.

“We always keep vigil and book rash drivers. Nonetheless, there are aberrations. We have to check if the killer bus had illegally entered the other lane or there was a diversion for the ongoing widening work," he said.