At the wheel after years, man drives straight into pond, dies – Times of India

Kolkata: An engineer who retired from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation water supply department got drowned on Thursday morning after he drove his car straight into a pond near his home in Behala. The victim, Ashok Roy (65), possibly stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake pedal, leading to the accident. Though the family driver was seated next to Roy, he could not react in time to prevent the mishap.
According to police, Roy was possibly out of practice and attempting to drive after a long time. “On Monday morning, he had asked the family driver to get into the co-driver’s seat as he was driving after a while. While negotiating a bend around the pond, he appears to have stepped on the accelerator and the car hurtled into the pond at high speed,” said an officer of Behala police station.
However, Roy’s former boss Bibhas Maity, who was the director general of water supply at KMC, recalled he had driven him to a number of places and it was hard to believe that he had forgotten how to drive. “May be he had suffered an ailment that led to the mishap. It is surprising that he drove drove into the pond,” he said. Roy’s family was too distraught to speak.
The 9am incident initially left bystanders too startled to react immediately. Soon though, some of the locals dived into the pond and attempted to rescue the occupants. While they managed to drag the co-driver out in time, Roy had already died by the time he was pulled out. He was declared dead at a local nursing home. The driver, Subhas Banerjee (49), is under treatment. Once he recovers, police will question him to find out what led to the accident.
A crane was brought to pull the car out of water. The car’s mechanicals will also be examined to check if a fault had developed.
The Jayasree Park pond where the incident happened doesn’t have railings around it. Locals said had there been a barrier, the accident could have been averted. Borough coordinator Susanta Ghosh agreed and said a railing could be installed to prevent a repeat.
If the accident had happened due to lack of driving practice, police felt it is best to get into a driving school to gain confidence as the vehicles there have two-pedal configuration that allows the co-driver to control the brake and clutch and thereby prevent the mishap.