Passenger's hand gets severed after bus scrapes past portion of house

Kolkata: Hand of a passenger sitting inside a running bus got severed after it collided with a pillar of a house. The injured passenger, identified as Utpal Karmakar, was rushed to M R Bangur Hospital where he is still undergoing treatment.

According to sources, on Thursday morning Karmakar boarded a West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC) bus from the S-4C route (Haridevpur-Howrah), going towards Tollygunge tram depot. Karmakar was sitting in a window seat with a portion of his hand placed outside the bus. Around 9:15 am, near Karunamoyee Crossing when the bus was moving along the road close to the houses, his left hand hit a pillar of a house and immediately got severed due to excessive friction. Hearing his cries, the driver stopped the bus. It was alleged that the bus was running at a very high speed on a narrow road.

Within minutes, the traffic police personnel arrived at the spot and rushed Karmakar to M R Bangur Hospital. But due to the poor condition of the severed portion, it could not be operated upon and joined with the main hand properly.

According to sources, as the severed part of the hand was smashed, the veins and arteries were torn. Also, in such cases, if the operation would have been done to join the severed part with the rest of the hand, there would be high chances of massive blood loss which could be life-threatening.

However, the bus along with the driver was taken to Haridevpur police station and a probe has been initiated. The driver has been booked under Sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the IPC and a prosecution has been given under Section 184 (driving dangerously) of the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act.

According to the owner of the house where the accident happened, the bus driver was driving rash and in a negligent manner because of which such an accident took place.