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School student, injured in Kolkata carpool accident dies of multiple organ failure
Police had created a 60-km long green corridor to bring Singh and Dibyanshu Bhakat to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata on February 14 after their carpool vehicle fell into a roadside canal. They were among the at least 15 students, one guardian and driver who were injured in the accident.
The Class 2 student, who was injured in a road accident in Hooghly district in West Bengal last week, died of multiple organ failure on Saturday, doctors said.
Doctors of a state-run super speciality hospital in Kolkata where Rishabh Singh was battling for his life for the past eight days said he died around 5am.
Police had created a 60-km long green corridor to bring Singh and Dibyanshu Bhakat to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata on February 14 after their carpool vehicle fell into a roadside canal. They were among the at least 15 students, one guardian and driver who were injured in the accident.
Doctors said that Bhakat’s condition has improved.
Singh was on life support and doctors had performed extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment, in which a pump is used to circulate blood through an artificial lung back into the bloodstream.
Senior Trinamool Congress leaders, including MLAs and MPs, rushed to the hospital soon after the accident and chief minister Mamata Banerjee had also enquired about the condition of the two boys.
“Despite our best efforts the kid didn’t survive. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has launched the save ‘Safe Drive, Safe Life’ campaign to reduce road accidents. But it seems no one is taking any lesson,” Member of parliament from Serampore in Hooghly district, Kalyan Banerjee, said.
Police later found that the carpool vehicle didn’t have any valid fitness certificate, its speed limiter was deliberately damaged and was travelling at breakneck speed.
The accident prompted the state government to issue a series of directives to schools to check the fitness of vehicles being used as a carpool to ferry students.
