Bike-taxi passenger dies, kin focus on rider’s safety flout

Kolkata: A day after she met with a severe accident on the Dhakuria Bridge while riding an app bike back home at Ganguly Bagan, 27-year-old Sweta Sen, a popular English teacher at Birla High School, died at a Dhakuria hospital around 6.30 pm, suffering multiple cardiac arrests.

In a bid to get those involved in the accident behind bars, her relatives, friends, and well-wishers have now gathered crucial evidence from the accident spot, scanning CCTV and talking to eyewitnesses. This evidence primarily shows that the app biker raced his bike from the Golpark side when the signal turned green and tried to squeeze past a private bus from the left, falling into the blind spot of the bus driver. They say that a bus plying on either of the two routes – 45 or 218 – was involved in the accident.

According to police, the incident was reported around 7.55 pm on Thursday on the northern slope of Dhakuria flyover, close to the Panchanantala cut and around 300 metres from Golpark.

"The biker started the ascent on the bridge when a vehicle, believed to be a bus, hit from behind. The app biker escaped with only minor injuries. We are analysing CCTV footage and trying to identify the vehicle involved in the accident and arrest the driver," said an officer from Rabindra Sarobar police station, where a case has been lodged.

Quoting one such eyewitness – the relatives have personally spoken to several of them and have gathered their contact numbers, which they now wish to hand over to the investigators – they claimed that in all likelihood, the bus brushed the bike, forcing the app biker to climb the footpath and then overturn.

"The injuries – all between the stomach and the knees – show signs of a tyre going over her. She suffered fatal injuries on the lower portion of the body, suggesting she came under the bike's tyre and not that of the bus. Yet, while the bike has been seized, cops have not arrested the bike rider and are yet to establish the identity of the bus driver involved in the accident," said one of her relatives, who herself tried to locate CCTV cameras attached to the private hospital and those set up outside shops at the opposite end of the bridge.

The relatives have demanded justice for the teacher and demanded the immediate handing over of the case from the local Rabindra Sarobar PS to the Fatal Squad of Traffic Police.

"The locals said the accident took place barely 30 metres up on the northern slope of the bridge from the Golpark end. There was a CCTV fixed towards this side even before Amphan. But after it got damaged in the cyclone, it was never replaced," alleged a family member.

The FSTP said it is taking over the probe and has already seized 11 crucial CCTV footages for leads. "The local traffic guard will cover all aspects in its report," said cops. The victim is survived by her father and elder sister after her mother passed away 10 years ago.

This is the second accident in as many weeks when a taxi bike rider got injured in an accident. The previous accident reported on VIP Road led to the biker's death and serious injuries to a female employee of an IT company.