A bus skidded on loose stone chips on Canal Road near Nicco Park on Monday, killing a 30-year-old engineer of Bengal Unitech Universal. Metro travelled the 3km stretch on the night of the mishap and the following morning and found reasons aplenty for fatal accidents

No street lights

Stretches of Canal Road are plunged into darkness, making it difficult for drivers to spot obstructions from a distance. Stone chips and sand heaped near the accident spot were removed the next morning.

Around 300 yards from the accident spot, 11 street lights were not functioning. Construction work has narrowed the road to half, but there were no glow signs warning motorists of the reduced width.

Bottlenecks

Cars coming from the direction of Science City and racing down the bridge connecting Canal Road to the EM Bypass suddenly hit a narrow road, where vehicles from Ultadanga, too, converge.

The other bottlenecks, though equally dangerous, are temporary. Things are expected to improve once the road repair work and construction of a bridge connecting the Bypass to Rajarhat are completed.

Loose top surface

“Driving on this stretch gets very tricky when it rains. Sometimes speeding tyres propel pebbles towards pedestrians and vehicles. A friend who was riding pillion on my motorcycle got hit on the helmet by a stone chip last week,” said a Sector V employee.

Sujit Karmakar, an autorickshaw driver on the Chingrihata-SDF Building route, said: “Small accidents are a daily affair on this road.”

A Nicco Park visitor pointed out that the guardrails along the carriageway — with spikes on top — were dangerous.

Need for speed

Drivers hired by private offices to ferry their staff often speed dangerously on this road to meet roster demands.

“They drive at 100kmph during night drop since they have to be back before the next pick-up,” said an employee of a Salt Lake BPO.

Official version

“We have started an inquiry against the contractor to find out why construction material had spilled on the road. The contractor has been asked to barricade portions of the road where construction material is dumped. But, possibly the driver was also speeding on Monday,” said S.A. Ahmed, the chairman of the Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority.