Rash driving took at least 20 lives and left several others seriously injured in one of the deadliest road accidents in the city on Friday. The casualties may rise. Those killed included five women, five children and 10 men. "So far we have received information that 20 passengers have lost their lives in the accident," IG (law and order) Raj Kanojia said.
There were around 50 passengers in the bus, but since it was very close to its last stop, many of them had got off before it met with the accident. Chairman of Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality Tapas Chatterjee said that most of the victims were from Rajarhat area.
The accident took place at the Kestopur-VIP Road crossing where a private bus of route no 217B fell into the roadside Bagjola Canal while trying to race past another bus of route no 217A. Both the buses which were coming from Babughat, were competing with each other, an eye-witness said.
"Both the buses were racing towards the dangerous crossing at a high-speed and then one of them fell into the canal at around 2.30 pm," Bipul Das, a local resident recalled.
"As the other one came closer, this bus veered off the road, skidded on the mud and plunged into the canal. It submerged on its left," Mr Das added. Within no time thousands of local residents and passers-by rushed to the site of the accident.
While some of them dived into the canal to rescue the passengers, others ran to inform the police and the fire services. Their delay in responding to the emergency, fuelled public anger.
"After over 40 minutes of the accident, a small break-down van of the public works department arrived. There was no trace of the police and the fire brigade," Debojit Chakraborty, a school teacher alleged.
One side of the VIP Road was closed for north-bound traffic to allow smooth and unhindered rescue operation. After an initial delay, the fire brigade, the National Disaster Management Authority and Disaster Management Group of the Kolkata police started working in tandem with the local rescuers.
Those trapped inside the bus were taken to nearby nursing homes. The condition of several of them at the Apex Nursing Home is critical. The police said that the accident was the outcome of rash driving.
"Prima facie, rash driving led to the unfortunate incident," additional superintendent of police (Barrackpore) of north 24 Parganas Pravin Kumar Tripathy said.
Till the reports last came in, 15 victims have been identified as Hena Mondal, Raghunath Ghosh, Idila Rishika, Shweta Shaw, Admat Bibi, Azma Bibi, Basudeb Sarkar, Subesh Chaudhuri, Shubhankar Das, Boby Hena, Sanjoy Roy, Munia, Aniruddha Biswas, Sita Devi Sharma and Bapi Das.