Six persons killed, 29 injured in six separate road accidents

Six persons including a swimmer and his mother were killed and 29 people were left injured in six separate road accidents in the state in the past 24 hours.

Police said a national level swimmer Sarthak Mitra (11) and his mother Tulika Mitra (32) were killed after being hit by a truck on BT Road at Agarpara in North 24-Parganas. The victims were residents of Konnagar in Hooghly and the accident took place when they were returning from school situated at Sodepur. They were declared brought dead when taken to the hospital.

The bodies of the victims were handed over to the family members on Wednesday after post-mortem. Trinamool Congress MLA Prabir Ghosal and Bappaditya Chatterjee, chairman of Konnagar Municipality, went to the residence of the victim on Tuesday night. Sarthak used to go to Konnagar Swimming club for his training and he had won several medals for his performance both in the state and national level.

Another road accident at Ultadanga claimed the life of driver of an app-based cab. The victim Hanuman Prasad Singh was declared brought dead when taken to hospital.

A police officer said that the car was heading towards the airport on EM Bypass from Ultadanga and it hit a truck that was parked along the road to repair a snag. “It seems that the driver fell asleep while driving the car and hit the stationary truck,” the officer said adding that another person was killed in a road accident at Charu market in South Kolkata in which a truck hit a motorbike. The biker was declared brought dead. The police are, however, yet to ascertain his identity. Local people damaged the offending truck.

Policemen from the local police station went to the spot and brought the situation under control.

There were two more road accidents in the city in the past 24 hours. One was left injured in the accidents. A bus with people returning from a marriage party hit a road side railing at Shyampukur in North Kolkata. The bus also hit a pedestrian and he received severe injuries. Police took him to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The other accident was on a ramp leading to Vidyasagar Setu.

A truck loaded turned sideways on the ramp leading to AJC Bose Road, Esplanade and Kidderpore. It led to massive traffic congestion on the bridge for around four hours. Huge cranes were used to remove the truck and the congestion was cleared.

In a major accident in Siliguri, two persons were killed and 24 were injured when two buses on Siliguri-Panitanki and Kharibari-Siliguri routes collided head on early on Wednesday morning.

The driver of one of the buses Jhantu Burman was declared brought dead when taken to hospital while the identity of the another person died is yet to be ascertained.

Both the buses were completely damaged in the accident. Local people had initiated the rescue work. Later police used electric cutter to cut open a portion of a bus to rescue the passengers. Condition of eight persons including five women was stated to be critical.

Four policemen were injured when a police van collided head first with a truck loaded with sacks full of rice at Sohra Bazar in Burdwan. The police had received severe injuries and admitted to the hospital.