Nilesh Roy recounts the mishap. Picture by Amit Datta

A pedestrian crossing VIP Road was dashed by one bus and run over by another on Thursday evening, hours after a lone boy in a schoolbus barely escaped death when the speeding vehicle fell on its side on the same killer road.

Tapan Ghosh, a resident of Dakshindari, was the 35th casualty in a road accident on VIP Road since January.

“Ghosh was trying to cross the road around 8.25pm when a Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC) bus hit him. He fell and was run over by another bus, which is yet to be identified. He was taken to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, but declared dead on arrival,” an official of Lake Town police station said.

Earlier in the day, Nilesh Roy, a student of Class VII in an English-medium school in CD block of Salt Lake, was lucky to get away with just four stitches on his forehead when the bus he was in swerved left and right in trying to overtake another vehicle, before screeching to a halt on its side.

The accident occurred near a shopping mall between Teghoria and Joramandir, and in the lane leading from the airport to Ultadanga.

Resting in his Kestopur home, Nilesh recounted: “I was in the seat behind driver uncle. The bus was being driven at high speed and I feared an accident would occur. I had grabbed the seat handle when the bus suddenly fell on its side”.

Nilesh was trapped between two seats and the iron rod attached to the first one struck him on the forehead.

Witnesses confirmed that the driver was speeding and trying to overtake a CSTC bus. “We were standing near the mall and saw the schoolbus hit the back of the other bus and fall on its side. It was around 2.30pm,” said Bablu Mondal, an employee of a showroom near the accident site. The driver, Dilip Maity, was arrested.

Nilesh’s father, Kingshuk Roy, said: “My son used to go to school in a pool car. But when there was a series of accidents involving pool cars, I contacted a travel agency, Roy Travels, that ferries students in a bus. I don’t know what to do now.”