Deaf-mute mom run over in tram trap - Tragedy with school bags over shoulder

Jan. 17: A young deaf-mute mother escorting her children to a tuition centre was run over on Rashbehari Avenue today after being caught between two trams, one of which sideswiped the school bags slung over her shoulder and flung her onto the other track.

Lake Gardens resident Jyoti Singh, her daughter Sakshi and friend Bimla Singh were walking single file along the divider between the tracks and looking to cross over to the Kalighat-bound flank when they spotted a tram approaching from the Gariahat side and another travelling in the opposite direction.

Caught between the trams at the Lake View Road intersection with no railings separating them in that barely two feet of space, the trio stood still and then arched to avoid contact with the passing compartments. Jyoti possibly didn't realise that the school bags she was carrying were jutting out from the side.

"The tram that was coming from behind us hit the bags on Jyoti's shoulder. She lost her balance and lurched towards the other track. The tram dragged her some distance," friend Bimla recounted.

Jyoti's son Nishant, who studies in Class VI, saw the tragedy from a pavement. He had crossed the road with Bimla's son Vinod moments earlier. The time was 9.30am and Rashbehari Avenue, a blur of traffic at that hour, suddenly seemed to come to a standstill.

Bimla said Sakshi, a student of Class V, tried to hold on to her mother and was dragged a few metres before she let go. "Fortunately, she didn't go under the tram like her mother."

Jyoti and Sakshi were taken to Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan in a police ambulance, where the homemaker died around 2pm. "She had lost a lot of blood. Her right leg was almost severed from below the knee," said an official at the hospital.

Sakshi, who studies at Svarna High School, was discharged after first aid. Her father Rajnish drives an oil tanker.

The police said Jyoti was trapped under the second compartment of the Kalighat-bound tram, which is why the driver and conductor did not realise what had happened until it was too late. "The traffic signal for both trams was green," an officer said.

Calcutta has 25 tram routes and route 24 - Ballygunge to Tollygunge - isn't a very busy one. Ten tramcars ply on this route at intervals of about 30 minutes in each direction. Sources in the Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC) said two trams crossing one another at the Lake View Road intersection was a matter of chance rather than a regular occurrence.

Route 24, which has been in operation since the 1940s, is listed first among those on the CTC's website. It was closed for some years since the late 1990s when the Gariahat flyover was being built. The tracks then used to be an elevated, grass-lined route. They were removed at the start of this millennium and the route was reopened in 2004 with tracks aligned with the thoroughfare.

The carriageway too became wider by about seven feet on each flank, allowing smoother traffic flow. But it made boarding and disembarking from trams more dangerous. Crossing the entire stretch of road became unsafe as well.