May 20: A 32-year-old techie driving his mother home from a hospital was killed this afternoon as his Hyundai Eon rammed into a parked state bus on the Bypass near the Patuli crossing.

Siddhartha Ghosh, who got married four months ago, was an assistant manager at the Tata Consultancy Services, a family member said. His wife is attached with a global consultancy firm.

Ghosh was declared dead at Peerless Hospital.

His mother, Uma Ghosh, 52, who was seated beside him, is admitted to the hospital with severe head injuries and multiple fractures on an arm and ribs.

Police said the accident occurred when they were returning home to Fartabad on Garia Station Road after a spinal cord check-up of the elderly woman at another hospital on the Bypass.

"Ghosh had suffered internal injuries. He had died by the time he was brought in," Sudipta Mitra, chief executive, Peerless Hospital, said.

"His mother has compound fractures in one of her arms that led to profuse bleeding. She is being operated on."

Traffic police officers said Ghosh and his mother weren't wearing seat belts at the time of the accident. But family members claimed otherwise.

"Saturday was his day off... so, he took his mother to hospital for her spinal cord problem. Both were wearing seat belts," Ghosh's cousin Rajib Ghosh told Metro.

Despite the two contradicting opinions, the accident is a reminder on how people overlook basic safety norms, especially during short trips.

"There is a general tendency among people to skip wearing the seat belt during short trips. They fail to understand that the belt is for their own safety," an officer said.

A traffic cop who was on the spot said the car was headed towards the Patuli crossing from the direction of the Baghajatin railway crossing when it suddenly rammed into the bus parked at the S 24 bus stop around 12.30pm.

An officer in Lalbazar said the cause of the accident was not clear.

The driver at the wheel might have been speeding or a mechanical fault might have led to the accident, the officer said. A mechanical test will be conducted to ascertain the cause, he said.

Ghosh did his schooling from St. Lawrence High School and his computer engineering from Heritage Institute of Technology.

Drink driving arrest

An auto driver was arrested in Baghajatin tonight on the charge of drink driving.