Two killed, two injured in taxi-truck collision

KOLKATA: Two persons died and two were critically injured when a sand-laden truck collided with a taxi in the BBD Bag area early on Sunday.
The accident took place after the speeding truck reportedly jumped a signal. The trucker and his cleaner managed to drive away after the accident.
Police said, Ratan Kumar Bose and Subrata Sarkar both in their late 50s were returning to Bhowanipore from Konnagar in Hooghly.Partners in a catering firm, they were travelling with their employee Monoj Bera.
They were speeding down Old Court House Street around 2.50 am when a truck suddenly emerged from the direction of Mangoe Lane. Cabbie Ganga Prasad Choube slammed on the brakes, but the truck had jumped the signal and the taxi rammed into it. Another private car also collided with the truck, but its occupants inside were not injured. The impact though reduced the taxi to a mass of mangled metal and left the four men inside bleeding and unconscious.
The truck managed to speed away but minutes later, a police patrol car reached the spot. Bringing the injured out of the vehicle proved to be a difficult task as the doors had been twisted out of shape. "The car was damaged badly and we had to break open the door and smash the rear screen to bring out the victims," said a police officer. All four Bose, Sarkar Bera and Choube were rushed to SSKM hospital. But doctors could do little for Sarkar and Bose, both of whom were declared dead. Choube and Bera are undergoing treatment with serious injuries.
A few months back, city police had decided to implement a number of preventive measures to control reckless driving at night. Guard rails were put up at all major intersections to check speeding. But truck drivers have flouted police norms with impunity. Like Sarkar and Bose, two policemen on patrol died in a collision near Raja Dinendra Steet a few months ago.