The killer truck and the mangled remains of the rickshaw at Mandirtala on Tuesday. Picture by Dipankar Majumdar

A truck rammed into a rickshaw, killing its puller and seriously injuring a woman passenger near Mandirtala, in Howrah, on Tuesday morning.

The mishap prompted local residents to ransack a traffic police booth and manhandle officers for their failure to stop trucks plying in the area.

The residents took Arun Maity, 35, and Ruma Chakraborty, 27, to SSKM Hospital. Kailash Jadav, the driver of the truck, was arrested.

The truck was carrying jute from Kidderpore to Bhadreswar. After crossing Vidyasagar Setu, it took a wrong turn and reached Mandirtala. The driver hit the rickshaw while making a U-turn to get to GT Road.

Maity was crushed under the wheels of the truck. Ruma, a resident of Sheikhpara Lane, in Shibpur, was trapped under the truck. The local residents could not immediately rescue the two.

Two cranes from the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners were used to lift the truck. The process took nearly an hour.

According to local residents, mishaps are common in the area because of faulty design of the flyover leading to Vidyasagar Setu. Heavy vehicles carry raw material to the adjoining areas and leave with finished products every day.

Ambika Banerjee, former central Howrah MLA, said: “A two-lane, 80 ft-wide road link with Benaras Road had been planned. If the road had been constructed, the trucks could have taken it to north Howrah.”

Swadesh Ranjan Chakraborty, chairman of the Howrah Improvement Trust and Howrah MP, denied that there was any fault in the design of the flyover and the approach road.