Bangladesh: 5 Of Family Among 13 Dead In Bus-Pickup Truck Collision On Dhaka-Khulna Highway

At least 13 people were killed and several were injured in a collision between a bus and a pickup truck on the Dhaka-Khulna highway in Bangladesh on Tuesday morning. The incident occurred in the Sadar upazila of Faridpur district. Locals jumped in to rescue the people immediately after the accident. Later, fire service, highway police, and the district police joined in the rescue operations. 

As many as 11, including the driver of the pickup truck, died on the spot. Two of the injured persons died after they were taken to Bangabandhu Medical College Hospital in Faridpur. At least four are being treated at the Faridpur Medical College Hospital. 

Md Hasanuzzaman, officer-in-charge of Faridpur Sadar Kotwali Police Station, said that a Magura-bound bus of Unique Paribahan from Dhaka collided with the pickup van going in the opposite direction. The pickup van was travelling from Faridpur’s Alfadanga. 

Faridpur Deputy Commissioner Md Kamrul Ahsan Talukder and Superintendent of Police Mohammad Morshed Alam rushed to the scene after the accident was reported. A five-member probe committee has been formed to investigate the incident. The families of the dead will receive 5 lakh Taka (approximately Rs 3.8 lakh) as compensation, while those injured will receive 3,00,000 Taka (approximately Rs 2.28 lakh), the deputy commissioner said. 

The public needs to be more careful while travelling otherwise such accidents and subsequent deaths will be difficult to avert, said SP Morshed Alam. “Owners and transport workers have a large role to play in this,” he added. 

Among the deceased were five members of a family. They were identified as Rafiq Molla (35) from Faridpur’s Bejidanga village, his wife Sumi Begum (23), their two children Ruhan Molla (5), and Habib Molla (3), and his mother. Rafiq used to work as a lift operator at a government office in Dhaka. He was headed back to Dhaka with his family on the pickup truck after the Eid holidays. The relatives of the deceased said they had hired the pickup truck after failing to find seats on a bus. 

The others killed in the accident are yet to be identified. The bodies will be identified during an initial inspection and handed over to their respective families, said Hasanuzzaman, chief of the Faridpur Kotwali Police Station. 

Sahana Begum, a resident of Kanaipur’s Dignagar village, saw the incident unfold. A wheel of the bus had fallen into a pothole on the road, she said, and it was parked unevenly on the road when the pickup van crashed into it.