Biker crushed as tree crashes on him

Kolkata: A young medical representative who had recently joined a pharmaceutical firm died in a freak accident on Friday night, when a tree fell on him on Kidderpore Road in Maidan.
Around 10pm on Friday, 26-year-old Khardah resident Sayan Mukherjee was heading towards Esplanade, when a giant tree, which was leaning precariously over the road, uprooted and crashed on him. Mukherjee, along with his bike, was buried under the heavy branches.
Police managed to extricate Mukherjee from under the branches and admitted him to SSKM Hospital in a critical condition. He had sustained injuries on his head and torso and had bled profusely. Doctors suspected he had internal trauma injuries as well. He died four hours later. After a post-mortem on Saturday, the body was handed to his family. Hastings police have filed a case of negligence.
“The motorcyclist was speeding. A passerby behind the rider said had the victim been riding slowly, he could have braked as the tree had already begun to topple over. Other motorists and bikers had stopped and raised an alarm. But before Mukherjee could react, the tree had crashed on him,” said DC (south) Meeraj Khalid. The mangled bike bore the evidence of the brute force of the tree that had slammed on the vehicle and its rider.
A relative of Mukherjee said after he got the job, the family had been thinking about his marriage. “The accident has left everyone in a shock,” said Gautam Chakraborty, Mukherjee’s uncle.
Sayan’s father, Sanjib, said his son had joined the company only two months ago. “The work required him to commute a lot and he travelled on his bike. Though there was a lot of work pressure, he appeared to enjoy it,” he said.
His office colleagues, too, recounted how enthusiastic he had been. “It is difficult to accept he is no more. Accidents do happen, but it is unfortunate that a tree fell on him when there was no storm or even heavy rain,” said a colleague.
Police said they were identifying the agency responsible for the area’s upkeep. “The accident could have perhaps been avoided had the tree been identified as vulnerable and corrective measures taken,” said a Hastings police station officer.
But KMC washed its hands of the matter and said the tree belonged to the Army. Eastern Command officers denied it. “Trees, even on land owned by the ministry of defence, as in this case, don’t belong to us. They belong to the forest department. We have to seek permission from the forest department to fell a tree within a garrison or camp, even if it was planted by us,” an officer said. PWD is entrusted with the upkeep of a large section of Maidan.