Auto hits pregnant woman in Garia, driver arrested

An auto rickshaw hit a pregnant woman in the middle of the street at Garia on Friday morning. The woman was admitted to a hospital.

Police said that Dipali Patra, a resident of Canning, South 24 Parganas, was rossing the road when the speeding auto hit her. She was taken to a local hospital and then shifted to R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. The doctors have kept her under observation.

However, the accused driver allegedly beat up the husband of the victim who was accompanying her when he protested against the incident. The accused Naresh Saha tried to escape from the spot, but locals caught him and was battered there by the mob.

Later, the driver was handed over to the police. He was subsequently arrested and his vehicle was seized.

The police initiated raids to check the menace of flouting traffic norms by auto-rickshaw drivers in some areas of Garia.

This comes at the time when several lives were lost in separate road accidents in the recent past and all the accidents took place due to reckless driving by auto-rickshaw drivers.

“We took the complaints from the husband of victim woman. The arrested auto driver will be produced before the court,” said a police officer.

It should be recalled that a college girl was killed while commuting in an auto which rammed into a private bus a few months ago at Ultadanga. An auto driver and a commuter were killed at Salt Lake, near City Centre, when it collided with a speeding public bus.

“As per the norms, a maximum of four passengers are allowed to ply in an auto-rickshaw. Three people sit on the rear seat while one person is allowed to travel sitting beside the driver in the front of the vehicle. But in many routes, drivers take five or even six passengers. They even race with each other to get passengers. In this case, the accused driver was probably trying to get an extra passenger. He sped off with the vehicle without caring the people crossing the road,” said the officer.