A mother on her way to drop her five-year-old daughter to school died after a speeding government bus hit the motorcycle her husband was driving near Jadavpur police station on Tuesday morning.
Debasree Mondal, 27, was declared dead when police took her to the nearby Baghajatin State General Hospital.
While Anikta, the child, escaped unhurt, the husband, Tapas Mondal, 39, was admitted to EEDF Hospital with a broken arm.
Police said the couple were on their way to drop off daughter Anikta at Binodini Girls School in Dhakuria when a government bus on route E1 (Jadavpur-Howrah) hit the two-wheeler from behind on Raja SC Mullick Road around 6.30am.
Bystanders told the police that the bus had barely left the government-run 8B bus depot in Jadavpur and was heading towards Jadavpur police station at a breakneck speed when the driver hit the two-wheeler.
The accident occurred in front of Bandhan Bank, a stretch that was relatively free of vehicles.
Debasree fell on the road and a rear wheel of the bus went over her head. Her husband, too, was knocked off the motorcycle and his right hand came under one of the wheels.
Anikta fell but escaped unhurt. She was taken to the police station at Jadavpur and later handed to the couple’s relatives who rushed from Santoshpur.
“The child was looking for her mother after returning home. We sent her to play with her friend in the neighbourhood to keep her distracted,” said Anjana Mondal, a sister of Tapas. “My brother’s hand needs to be operated upon. But we decided to bring him home with the hand in plaster.”
After hitting the two-wheeler, the bus sped away. When the police tracked down the vehicle, it was on its way to Howrah. The driver was asked to return with the vehicle and report to Jadavpur police station.
“A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been registered against the driver,” said a senior police officer.
Debasree’s death comes within a month of the Bengal government issuing guidelines for bus drivers and conductors, aimed at preventing road accidents.
The guidelines say bus drivers and conductors have to take road accident victims “to the nearest emergency medical/trauma care facility” and make arrangements to save lives “through immediate triage” of passengers “in imminent danger”.
The guidelines also state that the driver and the conductor of a bus involved in an accident must inform the owner about it and alert the police by calling 100 or 1093.
The six-page guidelines, signed by transport secretary Saumitra Mohan, were issued weeks after chief minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her anguish over road accidents following the death of an 11-year-old boy in Salt Lake on November 12.
