Salt Lake: A 25-year-old woman riding a scooter to work was fatally injured on Thursday morning when a bus hit her while she was trying to take a U-turn ahead of Nicco Park after missing the intersection that leads to her Sector V office.

Puja Paul, a resident of Garia, had her loosely strapped helmet slip out as she fell, causing the serious head injury that took her life, according to the police.

She was found wearing earphones under the helmet, which might have prevented her from hearing the bus horn clearly if the driver at all honked, an officer said.

Puja, a BPO employee and the lone earning member of her family, was riding a Honda Grazia 125cc scooter gifted to her by her cousin Priti three months ago. She was headed to EP-GP Block in Sector V and had tried to make a U-turn through a gap between two pillars of the New Garia-Airport Metro.

An officer in the Nabadiganta Traffic Guard said quoting witnesses that Puja was in the extreme left lane of the Bypass-New Town connector and had suddenly veered right to make the U-turn.

A private bus on the Kadamtala-New Town route hit the scooter from behind, flinging Puja to the ground. Traffic cops took her to Bidhannagar Sub-divisional Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival.

The accident, which occurred around 9.15am, is one in a long sequence of road tragedies caused by Calcutta's lack of traffic discipline.

The police found a learner's licence in Puja's bag. The letter "L" fashioned out of tape had been pasted on the scooter's front.

The law stipulates that someone with a learner's licence can ride a two-wheeler only under the supervision of a person with a valid licence.