A 65-year-old man, who was standing on the footboard of a private bus, fell on the road when the driver braked hard to pick up passengers at Gariahat crossing, while another bus that was trailing it hit the man as it overtook from the wrong side.

The man’s left ear got almost severed in the accident. His right ear, too, was injured and his left arm fractured. However, he has survived.

According to witnesses, Samir Pal was standing on the footboard to spit from the moving bus when he lost control and fell after the driver slammed the brake suddenly to pick up passengers from the middle of the road. He got hit by another bus that came from behind and tried to overtake from the wrong side.

Pal was taken to Peerless Hospital, where he underwent plastic surgery to repair his left ear.

“The patient had his left ear almost severed when he was brought to the hospital. His ear was dangling. An X-ray and some other tests have shown that apparently there was no internal bony injury. But once the plastic surgery is completed, the internal parameters will have to be re-examined,” said Indraneel Dasgupta of Peerless Hospital.

Pal is being treated by orthopaedic and plastic surgeons. “If the ear cannot be repaired by plastic surgery, then it would have to be re-constructed,” Dasgupta added.

Pal had boarded a Babughat-bound bus of route 212 from Haltu sometime before the accident happened at 9.15am.

“The bus had got off Bijon Setu and was heading straight towards Rashbehari when the driver suddenly pressed the brake in the middle of the road. The signal was green and a bus of route number 3C/2 coming from behind tried to overtake it from the left side. This man almost got sandwiched between the two buses. It was a miracle that he survived,” said a hawker who saw the incident.

Bus No. 3C/2 plies between Kasba and Nager Bazar.

Pal, a retired person, has his elder son working in a private office in New Alipore, while his younger son is a college student.

Such incidents of buses racing to pick up passengers are common in Calcutta where the earning of bus drivers depend on the “commission system”.

An officer said for private buses the driver’s salary depended on the number of passengers he could pack in throughout the day.

“This is the root cause of most accidents that happen because of racing buses. Drivers of the same route are always in a hurry to pick up passengers even from the middle of the road, risking the lives of passengers and pedestrians,” said a traffic sergeant.

Gariahat crossing is one of the city’s busiest intersections that witnesses heavy vehicular traffic both on weekdays and weekends. The spillover of pedestrian movement on the roads also creates congestion and reduces the average speed of vehicles.

Pedestrians, however, said with footpaths occupied by shops and stalls, they were forced to walk on the main road, even at the risk of life and limb.

“The footpaths are encroached. So we are left with no option but to walk on the road. But people also should be a little disciplined to get off or board a bus only at the designated stoppages,” said homemaker Ruhi Sinha, a resident of Dhakuria.

Drivers of both the buses were arrested and charged with sections of rash and negligent driving by officers of Gariahat police station. Both the buses were impounded.