Lucky escape for 5 youths after car rolls into swamp

KOLKATA: Five youths - all of them either high school or college students - returning from a party had a miraculous escape after the modified Honda Civic they were travelling in crashed into a roadside railing, broke through three wooden benches, flipped over twice and finally came to a rest in the swamp near Chingrighata late on Monday night.
All the occupants of the car escaped with minor bruises and returned home the moment they could pull themselves out of the vehicle. Policemen from the Beliaghata traffic guard and Pragati Maidan police station had to deploy a crane to take the car out of the swamp.

This was the third accident - all three involving speeding - in two weeks on the Metropolitan-Chingrighata stretch. Police, however, claimed none of the victims was drunk. "We believe the car was speeding when the driver dozed off and lost control," said a senior police officer. The car was moving from Science City towards Chingrighata between 1.30am and 1.45am when the accident took place opposite Captain Bheri.

"The occupants are all residents of Baguiati and Dum Dum. The car crossed Bypass Dhaba and took a slight left turn (the same direction the road takes). The driver lost control at this precise moment. The car swerved further left, hit the road furniture ahead - three benches the KMDA put up as part of its beautification drive - before hitting the railing. Once the car collided with the railing, it flipped twice in the air and landed on the swamp close to the under-construction Metro pillar. The youths managed to climb out as the water in the swamp wasn't very deep," said an officer.

The cops used the car registration number to contact the owner. "One look at the car shows the youths were plain lucky. The entire frontal portion of the car has been completely damaged," said an officer at Lalbazar. The cops will carry out a mechanical test of the car but they are not pressing any serious charges as the accident was non-fatal. "We are looking at the CCTV footage to ascertain the exact sequence of events," said a senior police officer.