Red Rd accident: Driver untraced

Kolkata/Jhargram:

Cops

are yet to identify and trace the

driver

of the mini-bus involved in the accident on

Red Road

, which claimed the life of a Kolkata Police constable and injured 18 others on Thursday. With the driver still at large and mechanical and final forensic reports being awaited, cops could not ascertain the exact cause behind the accident.

The police claimed to have spoken to the injured and found that none of them was sitting near the driver’s seat. However, cops said that they can confirm the identity of the driver after going through the CCTV footage. “

A primary report by the forensic team claimed that rash driving led to the fatal accident. “The driver tried to take a right turn from Kidderpore Road to Dufferin Road at a high speed, disturbing the torque — a measure of the force that can cause an object to rotate on an axis. So, the bus moved right and hit the constable on the bike. After hitting the bike, the driver lost control over the bus,” said a forensic expert.

When TOI called up the bus owner Khurshid Alam, the person, who received it, introduced himself as his son and said, “We are trying to trace the driver. We do not know who was driving our bus as the union takes the final call. We are helping cops in the probe. We will let you know when he is arrested.”

Meanwhile, the deceased constable Vivekananda Deb’s family at Jamboni is still in disbelief about the accident.

“I identified the bike initially in the TV visuals and got worried. I saw his son's name on it. Later, when a call came from Lalbazar, we were devastated. Both his parents — Ashish and Minati — are too shocked. He was the only son and the steady earning member of the family. I do not know about the future of his seven-year-old son,” said his cousin, Pabitra Deb.

“He was a happy person and whenever he returned from Kolkata, he would tell us about the stories of hope,” he recounted.