Woman killed by auto, driver held

An auto-rickshaw hit a passenger in the middle of the street at Canning, South 24 Parganas on Tuesday 

morning. The woman succumbed to her injuries in the hospital.

Police said that Anowara Majhi, a resident of Canning, South 24 Parganas, was crossing the road when the speeding auto hit her.  She was taken to a local hospital and then R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, but doctors could not save her life.

The locals caught the killer auto driver Naresh Saha and he was beaten up by the mob. Later, the driver was handed to the police. The driver was arrested and his vehicle was seized.

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

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

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 an auto-rickshaw. But in many routes, drivers take five or even six passengers.

“Carrying five passengers were restricted a decade ago to check accidents. The driver gets very little space to drive the vehicle if he takes two passengers on both sides.As a result, there used to be several accidents. Now the situation is such that they take an additional passenger and at the same time 

drive recklessly without following traffic norms,” said a police officer.