Taratala: A pedestrian was run over on Thursday morning by an allegedly speeding bus that swerved left at the foot of the Taratala flyover to enter a narrow bus bay created with flexible bollards.

Freelance web designer and karate instructor Vinay Kumar Ram, 35, was standing near the pavement in front of the Taratala mint around 11.15am when the bus came at him and dragged him under a wheel.

The vehicle uprooted a lamp post next and came to rest after ramming into the rear of another bus, a witness said.

Vinay was declared dead on arrival at SSKM Hospital.

The driver fled and hadn't been arrested till late on Thursday.

Police's version of the accident differed from that of multiple witnesses. "The bus was headed towards Esplanade from Diamond Harbour when it slammed a lamp post near the mint and the pole fell on the victim," a police officer said.

But a truck driver who was standing outside the mint gate when the accident occurred said the bus swerved and hit Vinay first. "I had seen the victim cross the road, holding an umbrella over his head. He was on the other side when the bus veered left and hit him. Everything happened in a flash. It seemed to me that the driver lost control of the vehicle," he said.

The stretch is notorious for buses racing to overtake each other to reach passengers waiting on the pavement along the bay created with orange-coloured bollards. Buses coming down the flyover are supposed to enter the bay to pick up passengers from the mint stop.

"A mechanical test will show if the brake failed," said an officer of the fatal squad of traffic police.

The confiscated bus has been kept at New Alipore police station.

Every bus stop at the foot of a flyover or a bridge is a potential accident spot because vehicles race each other to reach passengers first, a traffic officer said.

A chef in a Salt Lake restaurant had his right arm crushed under the front wheel of a bus that hit him after racing down the slope of the Ambedkar Bridge near Science City on Saturday afternoon.

Vinay, who lost his life because of similarly reckless driving, lived with his parents and siblings near Chakmir, around 12km from Taratala. "He worked for several people. He had stepped out of home early in the morning," said Rameshwar Ram, the victim's father and a former employee of the mint.

A young woman riding pillion on a friend's motorbike was run over on the Bypass-Park Circus connector on Wednesday morning.