A 32-year-old Dum Dum resident was killed after the cab he was travelling in rammed into the culvert of the Kestopur canal on the airport-bound flank of VIP Road and plunged into water around 2am on Monday, police said.
Ratan Das, an ambulance driver, was headed home to Dum Dum’s Rabindranagar and was on the rear seat, an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said. He got trapped inside the vehicle when it submerged in the water. The driver managed to get out of the vehicle and fled on foot, the officer said.
“The car was speeding and the driver lost control. There are no signs on the road such as tyre marks to indicate that the driver had braked to avoid ramming into the culvert,” the officer said.
“A probe has been started to track down the driver. We have got in touch with the owner of the vehicle to find out how long the driver was at the wheel at a stretch.”
Metro visited the accident spot on Monday morning and found that the culvert on VIP Road appears suddenly after a smooth wide stretch. The road forks into a Y and can take those who are not used to driving down the stretch by surprise.
There are no signs on VIP Road warning motorists about the culvert. There are no reflectors or reflective paint on the wall of the culvert. Guardrails fitted with reflective tapes were erected only on Monday afternoon.
A couple of vegetable sellers who were on their way to a wholesale market in Rajarhat rushed to the Baguiati traffic guard nearby and alerted the cops about the accident.
A crane was deployed and it took more than 30 minutes to take the vehicle out of the water.Das was lying slumped on the back seat. He was taken to a nearby nursing home, where he was declared dead.
Shimul Mondal, one of the vegetable sellers who alerted the cops, told this newspaper that he saw the car hit a concrete slab of the culvert before falling into the water. “I rushed there but realised that I will not be able to do anything as the car was at least five feet below the road’s level and was sinking. I alerted the cops,” said Mondal.
