The South Bengal State Transport Corporation bus after recovery vans got it toppled in the ditch. (Below) The mangled remains of the car. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

A Maruti Zen collided with a bus, which then lost control and veered off to a roadside ditch, carrying the car along.

The mishap on National Highway 2, in Bally, on Sunday left the car driver dead on the spot.

Two of the 25-odd passengers of the Bankura-bound South Bengal State Transport Corporation were injured and admitted to Uttarpara State General Hospital.

The rest could get out on their own as the bus landed in the ditch on its wheels, the car crushed under it.

Howrah police superintendent Niraj Kumar Singh said: “We are trying to find out the sequence of events leading to the accident. A search is on to identify the driver.”

Witnesses said the car (WB 02G 1411), speeding down the service road of the highway, overtook a Tata Sumo at Nischinda around 12.30pm when it suddenly came in front of the bus.

Left with no time to slam the brakes, the driver crashed into the bus. Taken off guard, the bus driver lost control and veered off the road, with the car in front, and landed in the slush-filled ditch. The car got crushed under the bus.

“There is a gap in the railing along the service road through which the bus and the car fell,” said an officer.

People from nearby shops and a dhaba rushed to the site and tried in vain to rescue the Maruti driver. A team from Bally police station arrived in half an hour and arranged for two recovery vans, which got the bus, empty by then, toppled in a bid to rescue the car driver.

But only the mangled remains of the front of the car and the driver’s body were lying on the spot. The other parts of the car were scattered around. The bus driver fled.

“Fortunately, most bus passengers could get out on their own through the rear gate. The two injured were helped out by the others,” said an officer.

A few feet from the spot where the bus and the car fell is a automobile repairing shop run by Sudip Ghosh. “It was a scary sight... a bus and a car speeding dangerously towards the ditch. The passengers were shouting for help.”

A few yards from the accident site, a private bus on route 79 fell off the rail bridge near Bally Halt station site on September 16, 2006, killing seven persons.