A crushed tube of shaving cream, its cap wrenched off, lies on the dried bloodstains on the spot where 27-year-old barber Sadhan Sil was knocked off his bicycle and crushed to death by a Matador van at Rajarhat New Town on Monday. Angry local residents damaged the vehicle and blocked the road for nearly two hours from 8 am, resulting in serious traffic congestion. In another incident, eight persons were injured after a private bus on route 56 turned turtle near Dakshineswar on its way to Barrackpore on Monday afternoon. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Three persons were killed in as many road accidents in the past 24 hours.

After preliminary investigations, police said all the deceased were victims of reckless driving.

Lalji Yadav, 34, a rickshaw-puller, was hit by a speeding taxi at the Nalini Seth Road- Sir Hariram Goenka Street crossing, in the Posta area, around 1.30 pm on Monday. The taxi driver, after knocking down Yadav, accelerated his car and crushed him under its wheels.

?Just after the accident, a few pedestrians and shop-owners rushed across and nabbed the taxi driver. Yadav was rushed to Vishuddhananda Hospital, where he was declared brought dead,? said Anuj Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (headquarters).

In another mishap, 60-year-old Phanindra Nath Das, a resident of Narasingha Dutta Road, in Howrah, was knocked down by a bus on the Howrah-Sealdah route at the India Exchange Place-Brabourne Road crossing. Police said the accident took place around 3.30 pm on Monday, when Das was trying to cross the road.

The bus driver jumped off his cabin and managed to flee. Das was rushed to Medical College and Hospital. He succumbed to his injuries around 5 pm.

However, traffic movement in front of the Tea Board office was disrupted for more than 30 minutes as people squatted on the road to protest reckless plying of private buses and cars on busy thoroughfares.

The situation was brought under control after senior police officers intervened.

In another accident, an unidentified woman, in her 50s, was crushed by a speeding private bus on route 13C on Judge?s Court Road on Sunday night. According to witnesses, the woman was trying to cross the road, when she was hit by the bus.

The driver of the killer bus fled, leaving the vehicle behind. The woman was rushed to SSKM Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.