Piyali Das was hit while trying to save her brother

A young woman trying to stop her schoolboy cousin from running across a road was crushed waist down by a bus on Wednesday, becoming the fourth road-mishap victim in two days to end up in hospital with mangled limbs.

Piyali Das, 22, might have escaped with a few fractures had driver Swapan Kumar Das not stepped on the accelerator again after slamming the brakes to save her and the child who came in front of his vehicle at the Beleghata-CIT Road crossing.

“He had braked the moment the bus hit the woman and the child. But he apparently panicked when a bystander shattered the vehicle’s windshield with a stone. As he revved up and sped away, both the front and rear tyres went over the girl’s hips,” a horrified witness recounted.

Shubham Singha, 11, suffered a few cuts and bruises while his cousin was admitted to Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital with almost detached hips that were reattached by surgeons. Doctors said Piyali, a fishmonger’s daughter, would need multiple surgeries to stand any chance of walking again.

“She has also suffered severe organ damage,” orthopaedic surgeon Abhijit Banerjee told Metro.

Piyali, a school dropout and the youngest of four sisters, was to be married soon. “We were hunting for a groom for her,” cried mother Dolly.

The accident occurred at 10.40am, when Piyali was escorting Shubham back home from Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Institution in Phoolbagan. The duo got off an auto at the crossing and were waiting to cross over and head home to Munshibazar, in Sealdah.

Shubham, a student of Class IV, said his cousin had signalled to the bus driver to slow down while they crossed over — there are no zebra markings for pedestrians at the four-point crossing — but he ignored it.

“The bus knocked us down before we realised what was happening. Didi was shouting ‘Bhai...bhai’ all the while. Someone pulled me out of harm’s way but the bus went over her,” the child recalled.

But police quoted witnesses as saying that Piyali was actually attempting to stop Shubham from running across when the accident occurred.

Passengers forced the runaway bus driver to stop near Joramandir, 500 metres away, and assaulted him. The police arrested him in the evening.