An app bike rider on his way to pick up a passenger died in an accident on Bangur Avenue on Monday morning.

Police said Debraj Das, 32, was wearing a helmet and holding the pillion rider’s helmet, which got entangled with a cycle, resulting in his fall.

A government bus that was trailing him ran over his head, the police said.

The bus driver has been arrested and the vehicle seized.

The crash took place on the Ultadanga-bound flank of VIP Road on Bangur Avenue around 9.15am. Many eyewitnesses said had the bus not been going at a “high speed”, the death could have been averted.

“The app bike rider was a resident of Ultadanga. He had picked up and dropped a passenger earlier in the morning and was on his way to pick up the second passenger. He was wearing a helmet. The second helmet, which he was carrying for the pillion rider, possibly got entangled with a cycle that was also moving in the same direction. That disbalanced the bike,” said an officer of Lake Town police station.

An eyewitness said it “all happened within a fraction of a second”.

“The biker hit something and fell. Before he could recover, a bus that was moving at high speed crushed him... Had the bus been moving slower, the driver could have applied the brakes,” said a passerby.

The bus — an AC-3 that plies between Barasat and Garia — hit Das from behind.

Das was declared dead at hospital. The bus was stopped at the site of the crash. The driver initially fled but the police later caught him.

Monday morning traffic on the arterial thoroughfare that connects the city with its northeastern fringes was disrupted for several hours after the accident.