Biker dies, 19th skidding case on Bypass between Garia & Ruby crossing this year

Kolkata: A 39-year-old man was found dead under mysterious circumstances on EM Bypass, close to the Ruby crossing, early on Monday morning. The police, prima facie, believe that he skidded and lost his life. However, cops said they are not ruling out a hit-and-run until they get the final post-mortem report.Sources said this was the 19th skidding incident reported between Garia and Ruby crossing this year and the fourth fatal accident in this stretch. "There has been a general rise in skidding incidents in the city, but this stretch has by far seen the largest number of them. This is despite the fact that there are no technical issues with the road surface. We are now engaging with experts – even from IIT-Kharagpur – to ascertain the exact reason behind these skidding cases. We want to know if the basic training of two-wheeler riders is lacking or if there are some technical issues involved," said a police officer.According to police, Atanu Mukherjee (39), a resident of Chowbhaga, was riding without a helmet. He was found lying on the road at 6.20 am by a passerby on the EM Bypass stretch between Avishikta and Ruby crossing, barely 150 metres from the crossing. His two-wheeler was found lying next to him.‘Since his bike was intact with no signs of being hit by another vehicle and he did not carry too many external injuries, we have sufficient reason to believe that he skidded. As he was not wearing a helmet, he received internal head injuries and died on the spot," said an investigating officer.Mayor Firhad Hakim denied that there was any skidding due to road conditions. "We do immediately repair roads after we dig up for some specific work. It does not mean that the death can be attributed to the poor condition of the road. Where is the proof that the accident was due to skidding?" he asked."We have sent the vehicle for tests to ascertain if the two-wheeler developed any snag or if it was the fault of the rider," said an officer. Officers said motorists tend to speed up when they see a stretch empty. According to police, they record a large number of accidents in Kolkata during non-peak hours, especially early morning, and mostly involve two-wheelers.