Srikumar Das: By God’s grace. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

When Srikumar Das, 35, was about to step out of office on Wednesday evening, he was warned by his colleagues: “Be careful, don’t land up in a hospital bed!” But the foreboding had nothing to do with the near-fatal accident the ONGC corporate communications executive had, an hour later.

Das had a miraculous escape when a deranged man slipped into the driver’s seat of a stationary CSTC bus and drove wildly through the stretch in front of Sealdah station, crushing a man to death and injuring three others.

One of the injured was Das, who on Thursday recounted the “kiss of death” from his hospital bed, where he is recuperating from a left collarbone hairline fracture and minor cuts and left bruises.

The note of warning from his colleagues — of landing up in a hospital bed — was mere office banter, referring to the driving skills of the co-worker Das was leaving his Chowringhee office with.

“I was supposed to meet my wife and daughter at Ballygunge station but changed my plans and decided to go to Sealdah, as I had finished work earlier than expected. If I had gone to Ballygunge, this would not have happened at all... But it was certainly my fate that saved me,” he said.

“I was walking down the narrow stretch in front of the station adjacent to the parking lot when I suddenly saw the bus jerk to life. I could see it speeding towards me but was unable to move — I felt as if I was rooted to the ground. In the fraction of a second, my world had turned upside down and I was staring at the underbelly of the bus. I did not feel any pain but my mind was racing. I was thinking how the rear wheels of the bus would crush my skull with a cracking sound,” Das recounted softly.

“I shut my eyes... Then, suddenly, I realised that the vehicle had screeched to a halt. I opened my eyes and looked up. I felt as if the mechanical parts would give way any minute and I would be crushed... Slowly, I mustered the courage to crawl out. To my left lay a man in a pool of blood and on the other side was another who was motionless.

“When I saw my wife and daughter a few metres away, I broke down... I experienced the moments before death and escaped alive only by God’s grace,” sighed Das.