May 17: A Tata Indigo hurtling down the Parama flyover towards Park Circus suddenly swerved right, jumped flanks and collided with a Maruti WagonR travelling in the opposite direction at 9.20am today.

All three persons in the two cars escaped with relatively minor injuries but the crash once again highlighted the perils of driving through the flyover, which many police officers say pose the toughest challenge in traffic management.

The police have long been running a campaign aimed at curbing rash driving but the efforts seem to have failed, especially on the Parama flyover.

"From the way the car hit the divider and jumped on to the other flank, it seems it was being driven at a speed much higher than the limit, which is 60kmph," said a sergeant, who was the among the first to reach the spot after the accident.

The police said the cars spun around after the crash and dragged against the concrete walls of the bridge before coming to a rest. Plastic pieces and glass shards that came off the cars were lying on the carriageway till the afternoon.

A pile-up was averted as no other vehicle was immediately behind the WagonR on the Bypass-bound flank.

Ramjan Mollah, who was driving the white Indigo, a commercial vehicle, said he lost control of the car after the brakes suddenly failed.

"I had just put the car on neutral shift and started applying the brakes as there was a slope approaching but the brakes did not respond," Ramjan told Metro.

He suffered waist, arm and leg injuries. Neighbour Azizul Mollah, who was in the front passenger seat, suffered a hairline fracture in leg.

Parnasree resident Mustaq Ahmed, 36, a senior system analyst of IBM who was driving to work in the WagonR, recounted: "I suddenly saw this airborne car coming from the other flank. There was nothing for me to do in that split second. I was just lucky that the car hit the right front wheel of my car. Had it still been in the air when it struck my car, I would probably be dead now.... It's a miracle that I have escaped with a shoulder sprain."

An officer of Karaya police station said: "We are trying to find out the circumstances leading to the incident. The Indigo will undergo a mechanical test."