Soumitra Ghosh at Kothari Medical Centre. Picture by Tamaghna Banerjee

A young priest on the way to work and a homemaker headed for a party were killed in road mishaps in south Calcutta on Friday morning.

Uday Mishra, 21, was crushed under the wheels of a truck at the intersection of Diamond Harbour Road-Remount Road around 7.10am.The priest was cycling from his home off Remount Road to New Alipore, where he used to perform puja in houses. The empty truck was coming from the opposite direction.

The driver jumped out of the truck after the accident and fled. His help was chased down by pedestrians and handed over to police.

“The priest was bleeding profusely from the head and died before we could take him to hospital,” said Garima Tiwari, a trader who witnessed the accident.

Residents put up a road block to protest the absence of traffic lights and policemen at the crossing. “A woman was run over by a bus in the same area, a few months back,” said resident Bablu Karim.

The blockade, which resulted in traffic snarls on Diamond Harbour Road, was lifted around 8.30am.

The other mishap took place around 20 minutes later at the intersection of Belvedere Road and Penn Road. The victim, 41-year-old Poly Ghosh, was riding pillion on her husband Soumitra’s motorcycle with their six-year-old son Abishkar. The family from New Barrackpore was going to attend the opening of a relative’s shop near Behala tram depot.

Soumitra lost control of the motorcycle and fell on Belvedere Road near the Agri Horticultural Society of India. Poly was run over by the rear wheels of a truck, which drove away.

“The motorcyclist was trying to overtake the soil-laden truck. He lost control when a speeding Ambassador came towards the two-wheeler from the opposite direction,” said Kanhaialal Shah, a hawker who saw the accident.

The injured were rushed to the Kothari Medical Centre and Research Institute. Poly died around 10.10am. Abishkar was admitted to the critical care unit of the hospital.