A Class IV student returning home from school on his mother’s scooter was killed on Tuesday morning after a bus that was allegedly trying to overtake another hit the two-wheeler’s handlebar.

Ayush Paik, 11, slammed into the running bus before falling on the road at Salt Lake’s gate number 2 intersection, police said.

Ayush’s mother Nur Jahan Paik, 35, and his two-year-old cousin Afroza Khatoon were injured. They were flung off the scooter before landing on a pavement along First Avenue, around 650m from the Punjab National Bank island bus stop.

A senior officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate’s traffic wing said their preliminary investigation revealed that Nur Jahan had swerved right to avoid hitting a protrusion and an uneven patch of road around a metal-lined concrete service hatch when the bus hit the handlebar of the scooter. The impact flung all of them on the road but Ayush’s head first hit the bus.

The children were not wearing helmets, the officer said. Nur Jahan Paik was wearing one.

“The scooter and the buses were headed towards EM Bypass from the PNB island. When the bus hit the scooter, Nur Jahan Paik failed to maintain balance. The woman and the two-year-old child fell on the pavement to their left, while Ayush hit his head against the body of the passing bus before landing on the road,” the officer said.

Ayush, 11, a student at Vaishno Devi Academy in Kestopur, was declared dead at a private hospital.

Nur Jahan was given first aid and discharged from NRS Medical College and Hospital. Afroza has been admitted to the hospital.

Family members headed back to the gate number II intersection with Ayush’s body in a hearse and held a protest near the Goutam’s bus stop along the Bypass.

The Salt Lake- and Bypass-bound flanks of Bagmari Road were closed to traffic for more than two hours from 1.15pm. The protesters allegedly hurled stones and damaged several vehicles.

Ayush’s father, Tarak Paik, said the buses were speeding and racing each other.

“My wife is a very cautious rider. Every day, she would drop our son to school and bring him back,” said Tarak, who runs a vegetable stall near Ultadanga railway station and also works as a part-time driver and a car mechanic.

Biplab Karmakar, who runs a grocery near the intersection, said they were alerted by a loud noise.

“We rushed out and saw motorists and passersby helping a woman and two children get into an autorickshaw, which sped away towards a hospital,” Karmakar said.

A large team from Kolkata Police and cops from the Bidhannagar commissionerate reached the spot and persuaded the demonstrators to withdraw their protest.

The Bypass-bound flank of Bagmari Road was reopened around 3pm.

Ayush’s body was then taken to Bidhannagar Sub-divisional Hospital and finally to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where an autopsy will be conducted.

One of the doctors who examined Ayush at the Bidhannagar hospital said: “He suffered a trauma injury in the head. The impact would have been less had he been wearing a helmet,” the doctor said.

The traffic wing of the Bidhannagar commissionerate seized both buses, which belong to the same owner and operate on the same route — 215A (Salt Lake-Howrah). The two drivers — Amarnath Choudhury and Krishnendu Dutta — have been arrested and charged under Section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

On Tuesday evening, a team of engineers from the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation visited the accident site.

The traffic officers at the spot told them that the road was at a higher level than the adjoining pavement.

“That makes it difficult for two-wheeler-riders at the edge of the road to reach the ground with their feet after coming to a stop. That is dangerous,” a senior police officer said.

Mamata concern

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, now touring north Bengal, called transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty and instructed him to take steps to curb the tendency among a section of bus drivers to overtake dangerously resulting in fatal accidents.

“The chief minister instructed that immediate steps be taken,” Chakraborty told Metro.

“A meeting has been called on Thursday with representatives of the police, private bus operators, transport department and the urban development department.”

Officials said urbandevelopment minister and Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim will join Chakraborty at the meeting.

“The number of fatal accidents has declined in Calcutta over the past few years. But the city still ranks quite high among metros in road accidents,” said a transport department official.

“A message could be sent from the meeting that murder cases would be registered against drivers found responsible for fatal accidents,” the official said.

Additional reporting by Kinsuk Basu