Speed criminals at the wheel

A bruise above the right eye of five-year-old Shubhodeep Chakraborty is the only mark that he carries from the ghastly accident that left his parents fighting for their lives. The trauma on his face is just as apparent. Though trembling from the shock, little Shubhodeep never left his parents' side from the accident site till the time they were wheeled into surgery.
He was sitting beside his father Barun when the accident took place.He remained with the policemen as they took his parents smeared in blood out of the bus and into SSKM Hospital's emergency block. Barun's elder brother Arun rushed to the hospital and took Shubhodeep away.
When some reporters asked the boy about the accident and where he lived, he could only mutter "Behala". The word barely audible. When asked where he was going the boy turned his head, "Jani na." (Don't know).
"We are extremely worried about what is going to happen," said Arun, Shubhodeep's uncle. Till late in the night, the boy kept asking about his parents who were in a critical condition.
The young boy is too traumatized to recount what happened but another passenger on board the ill-fated minibus recalled the moment when the collision took place. Ashim Das was in the rear seat, which probably saved his life. In the split second that it took for the high-speed collision to reach him, he jumped away from the window but couldn't escape entirely. A piece of rod jutting out of the 12C route bus hit him in the head.
"Something metallic was protruding from the other bus and struck my forehead," Das said after being treated for the injury. The 36-year-old, a regular on the route, said the minibus would often race other vehicles. "On reaching Maidan, the driver took full advantage of the smooth road and went zigzagging through the traffic," he said.
After reaching Dufferin Road, vehicles streamed in from both sides. "I couldn't see what exactly was moving in front of the minibus. There were no other buses in sight on our lane. He took a sharp turn when a bus came from the other side and slammed into us," Das said.
As the two metal bodies clashed and the passengers in the front seats started screaming, Das realized what was happening and dived to his left.
Another injured, Shubhashish Chatterjee, fell forward in the impact of the collision and badly hurt his face. All the injured passengers including the Chakraborty couple and Ashish Pal were sitting on the right-hand window side. Passengers sitting beside those injured or on the left side escaped unhurt. So did everyone on the 12C bus. Many passengers on both buses were splattered with blood and pieces of flesh.
Even policemen who went to the accident site found it difficult. "Never before in my career have I seen such an accident. This is the most macabre one," said a traffic sergeant.