July 12: A woman riding pillion on a motorbike after dropping her son at school was knocked down and run over by a bus racing to overtake another from the left in Salt Lake's BD Block this morning.

The motorbike had just rolled out into First Avenue when the bus on route 201 (Karunamoyee-Belghoria) rammed into it. Sonali Dey fell on the road and came under the left front wheel of the bus. The rider escaped with minor injuries because he fell to the left of the bus.

Both buses sped away immediately, according to more than one Salt Lake resident who saw the horrific scene unfold from their balconies. Sonali was bathed in her own blood while the man, her brother-in-law Samir, sat dazed at a distance.

An autorickshaw driver named Ashish Mondal picked up the victim and took her to the nearby ILS Hospital, where she was declared brought dead.

The road tragedy again highlights what is wrong with traffic in Calcutta and the perils commuters face every day. Buses remain a law unto themselves, rogue drivers have little to fear unless someone gets killed and many people on motorbikes still don't wear helmets. Add to this hazards like road dividers with unkempt landscaping that create blind spots at intersections.

Sonali and her son Shivam had taken a ride to Salt Lake from their home on Muraripukur Road in Maniktala, 5km away, on her brother-in-law's motorbike.

Samir's daughter, who studies in another school in Salt Lake, was also riding pillion until minutes before the accident.

The accident occurred when the bus on route 201 was racing another on route 215A (Karunamoyee-Howrah station). In trying to illegally overtake from the left, the bus dashed Samir's motorbike near the BD Block bus stop.

For residents of the neighbourhood, the sight of buses hurtling down First Avenue at speed and screeching to a halt near the bus stop is nothing new. Atanu Sinha, who lives there, said accidents were not uncommon either. "The other day, a speeding bus nearly rammed into my car from behind. I had slowed down because a cyclist came in my way," he recounted.

Rogue drivers, if at all they are penalised, get away with citation fines that are hardly a deterrent to continue driving rashly. In the case of bus drivers, a fine does not directly affect them in any way.

An officer in the Bidhannagar police commissionerate blamed the commission system based on daily collections for racing buses on the streets of Calcutta.

A passenger who had got off the bus on route 201 just before the accident that killed Sonali said that the vehicle was racing another from the Kwality bus stop, around 900 metres before the BD Block stop.

According to the passenger, the two drivers had had a heated exchange when the two buses were at the Kwality bus stop.

S. Saha, one of those who saw the accident happen, said Samir was taking a left turn from BD Block to get on First Avenue when the bus hit the motorbike from behind. "The bus that hit the bike did not even slow down after that."

Sonali's brother Bubai Ghosh said his sister would usually take public transport to drop her son at school. "Today morning, my brother-in-law gave his motorbike to Samir, who lives next door, and asked him to drop the kids at school. Who could have imagined this tragedy would befall us?"

The spot where the accident occurred has a divider with overgrown shrubbery that creates blind spots for motorists. The bus stop with two schools on either side did not have traffic cops regulating traffic when Sonali was run over.

"There was not a single traffic cop on duty when this happened," said Rahul Chatterjee, a resident of BD Block.

An officer at the Bidhannagar police commissionerate admitted that there was no traffic cop on duty there at the time of the accident. "We are largely dependent on civic police volunteers to regulate traffic. Those deputed at the crossing were absent today," he said.

After blood was spilt, the police and the civic body swung into action. Two assistant sub-inspectors of traffic, accompanied by half a dozen civic police volunteers, descended on the accident site to ensure that children crossed the road safely. The overgrown shrubbery and trees were trimmed.

The drivers of the two buses had not been arrested till late tonight.