Five people including two children have been killed after a microbus collided head-on with a truck in Narsingdi district.
The accident happened at Bhatpara Sakura intersection on Panchdona-Ghorashal road in Madhabdi upazila of the district on Saturday midnight.
Madhabdi police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Md Syeduzzaman confirmed the matter.
The deceased are Mukti Akhter, 30, her son Sadikul, 8, Rubi Akhter, 40, her daughter Rahima, 3, and Rokeya Akhter, 52.
The accident left nine other people injured. All the victims hailed from Ashulia’s Jirabo area in Dhaka’s Savar upazila.
Relatives of the victims, police and locals said that after visiting the shrine in Sylhet, the victims were returning back home in a microbus. As the microbus reached Bhatpara Sakura intersection it collided head-on with a truck, killing a child and a woman on the spot.
The other child died while locals were rushing the injured to Narsingdi General Hospital.
Later, the injured were referred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and the other two women passed away on the way to the hospital, confirmed Narsingdi Sadar Hospital emergency department on-duty doctor Md Asaduzzaman.
OC Syeduzzaman said a case will be soon filed in this regard and the bodies will be handed over to the families.
Police seized the truck but could not arrest its driver as he fled the scene after the accident, he added.
Road accident in Bangladesh
Road accidents are common in Bangladesh and have been a major cause of deaths.
During the last Eid-ul-Fitr holiday rush, road accidents claimed 323 lives in just 15 days, said Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Shamiti, a human rights body.
Besides, 513 people, including 63 children, were killed and 598 injured in 409 road accidents across the country in March, said another rights body, Road Safety Foundation, on April 5.
It said 147 lives were lost in 138 motorcycle accidents, which is 28.65% of the total deaths.
In a report released in February 2020, the World Bank pointed out that Bangladesh needs to invest an estimated $7.8 billion over the next decade to halve its road crash fatalities.
The report attributed the high death rate on Bangladesh’s roads to lack of investments in systemic, targeted, and sustained road safety programs.
