Tripti Neogy often wakes up in the middle of the night and shouts: “Please help her. Please take her to hospital.”

The nightmare has robbed the 70-year-old of sleep since February 21, when she saw her 14-year-old granddaughter bleed to death on VIP Road after being run over by a speeding bus.

That morning, seven weeks ago, Tripti was accompanying Sushmita Harijan from their home in Jagatpur of Baguiati to VIP Road.

She would help her granddaughter cross the chaotic thoroughfare and then return home while the Class VII student would carry on to Hindu Vidyapeeth School nearby.

Tripti was turning back when a bus hit her. Sushmita saw her grandmother fall down and rushed back to help her. But before the teenager could reach her, a bus on route no. 45 crushed her under its wheels.

Tripti watched helplessly as her granddaughter lay bleeding on VIP Road and the killer bus raced away.

Since that morning, Sushmita’s grandmother has not ventured near VIP Road. She rarely steps out of the one-room hutment in Gyanendra Pally of Jagatpur.

“What haunts her the most is the fact that her granddaughter died while trying to save her. She is living with the regret that her granddaughter died while she survived. She says she should have died, instead,” said Sushmita’s mother Jayashree.

“She lies or sits quietly in one corner all day. If we try to talk to her she starts crying. And at night she often cries out, as if trying to save Sushmita from the bus.... Her health is deteriorating rapidly,” said Jayashree, casting a concerned eye on her frail mother.

If Sushmita’s grandmother has gone silent, her kid sister Pishmita has not stopped asking questions.

The six-year-old just can’t understand why her “Didi” is not coming back home to play with her.

“She is always asking ‘Didi kothay?’, ‘Didi kokhon ashbe?’. We do not know what to tell her.... Sushmita meant everything to Pishmita. They would always play together and Sushmita would help with her studies,” said Jayashree.

Sushmita’s father Ramshaw Jeevan Harijan is a temporary fourth-class employee with Eastern Railway.

Both Ramshaw and Jayashree blame the death of their first-born on the failure of the state administration to slam the brakes on rash driving.

“The Baguiati crossing is a menace. Every other day there is an accident, but no one seems to be bothered” said Ramshaw.

“I do not understand why they cannot erect an overbridge at the crossing. There is no proper policing at the crossing as the buses keep speeding up and down. How many lives must be lost before the authorities do something about traffic on VIP Road?” demanded the grieving father.

According to Sushmita’s parents, after crushing their daughter under the wheels, the driver of the bus had fled the accident site. He was arrested later only to be let off on bail.

“She was so good in studies, always among the toppers in class. Rarely does a child living in such an environment display such potential as a student. She was our hope...” said Jayashree, wiping a tear.

Do you know of a family ruined by an accident caused by rash driving? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com or zeeshan@abpmail.com