Mayurika Dhara pressed herself against the wall of the toll plaza on the second Hooghly bridge to avert a truck that hit a scooty on which she had been sitting seconds earlier.

The 35-year-old yoga trainer was waiting in the toll plaza queue when a noise made her look behind. She saw the truck hurtling towards her.

Hours later, at her Mandirtala home in Howrah, a still-traumatised Mayurika recounted the "near-death" experience to Metro

I was returning home from yoga classes at Park Circus and took the AJC Bose Road flyover like every day.

I usually go home a little later but today I had cancelled one class to be with my son, who is unwell.

I was waiting to pay the toll when I heard a noise from behind. I turned back to see a truck coming towards me. I could not believe my eyes because it was barely a few metres away. The truck was so close that I knew I had no time to run right to the other side of the road.

To my left, there was only a wall. I got off the scooty and leaned against the wall, hoping the truck would manage to skirt past me. Seconds later, the truck passed right in front of my face and hit my scooty.

It was a-near death experience for me because even as I was running towards the wall to save myself, I was thinking I could be run over any moment.

A 68-year-old resident of Bhowanipore fell off his two-wheeler when the truck hit it from behind.

Lawrence Francis thought he was going to die when he spotted the truck approaching. The next moment he was lying on the road, dizzy and shocked but alive. Francis recounted his experience to Metro

I was at the toll plaza when I suddenly heard people shouting. The person riding pillion with me, too, started shouting " palan palan (run run)".

He had already got off the vehicle and was frantically asking me to do the same. I turned back and saw a lorry that seemed the size of a mountain coming towards me. I froze.

The next I remember I was lying on the road and police and a lot of people were rushing towards me. My head was reeling. I was put into an ambulance and taken to hospital. My right leg was already broken and I suffered another injury in the same leg.

The lorry had brushed past my vehicle and I had fallen to my left under the impact. The truck went past the two-wheeler's right. Had it gone the other way, I would have been under its wheels. It was a miraculous escape.