A schoolteacher who was trying to cross the road in front of her home to buy flowers died after a Mahindra Scorpio hit her near Kalighat on Saturday morning, police said.

Subhalakshmi Banerjee, 41, who lived at 71/A SP Mukherjee Road, was caught in the middle of the road and could not decide whether to stop or move ahead when she saw vehicles speeding towards her, the police said.

“It is clearly visible in CCTV footage that she was hesitating in the middle of the road when she saw a car coming towards her. A moment’s hesitation cost her life,” an officer of Kalighat police station said.

The Telegraph tried to contact Banerjee’s family over the phone on Saturday evening but could not.

“Pedestrians are always advised to cross the road only when the signal is red for vehicles. In this case, the signal was green and vehicles were moving,” the officer said.

Eyewitnesses said the vehicle hit her at high speed and she was flung in the air on impact.

Banerjee was a teacher at Arya Kanya Mahavidyalaya near Srimani Market on Bidhan Sarani, the police said.

The accident occurred around 6.51am at the crossing of SP Mukherjee Road and Kali Temple Road when the “traffic volume was relatively low”.

The Scorpio fled after the accident. Traffic police officers got the vehicle details from CCTV footage and tracked it down to the registered owner’s address on Bhukailash Road. It was seized on Saturday night.

In his statement to the police, the owner has said the man who washes the vehicle daily was at the wheel when the accident occurred. That man is at large, the police said on Saturday night.

Every year, more than 50 per cent of road deaths involve pedestrians, according to traffic police records.

The number of road deaths in Calcutta dropped to 267 in 2019 from 294 in 2018 but the number of accidents involving pedestrians went up.

In 2018, close to half of those killed in road accidents in Calcutta were pedestrians.

In 2019, the percentage of pedestrian deaths went up to 56. In 2018, 146 pedestrians were killed in road accidents. In 2019, the number went up to 151.