A couple and their child riding an electric scooter were injured after an app cab hit them near the Chingrighata crossing on Tuesday afternoon.

Police said only Arunabha Bhattacharya, 43, had a helmet while his wife Sandipa, 33, and seven-year-old daughter Ishani rode without helmets.

Although all three were discharged from a hospital after preliminary treatment, the crash was only a reminder of how many Calcuttans still choose to drive their families without securing them with headgear.

Bhattacharya, a resident of the Chanditala crossing in Behala, was riding an electric scooter with his wife and daughter as his pillion riders when an app cab allegedly hit the scooter on EM Bypass near the Chingrighata crossing around 2.35pm on Tuesday.

“Arunabha (Bhattacharya) was riding with his helmet on, but his wife and daughter did not have helmets. All three were flung off the scooter on the road. But luckily there were no other vehicles at that time,” said an officer at the traffic department in the Kolkata Police headquarters.

Earlier this year in February, an 18-month-old baby Sloke Jaiswara who was sitting on the lap of his mother, riding pillion to his father, slipped off the arms of his mother and fell on the road in Alipore. Before his parents could react, a trailer crushed the little child under its rear wheels.

Although providing a helmet to an 18-month-old was ruled out, police had warned that carrying children pillion in two-wheelers without ensuring their safety could lead to critical injuries.

Many two-wheeler riders are spotted on the Calcutta roads carrying their children pillion without headgear, exposing them to the danger of a road crash.

“In this incident that happened at Chingrighata today (Tuesday), luckily the injuries were not too serious. There was no other vehicle that could have injured the scooter riders. The app cab has been impounded and the driver has been arrested,” said a senior officer in Lalbazar.