3 college girls killed
"Lucky" was the name of the college bus some 60 female students boarded, hoping to go home. But the journey the students of Rajshahi Government College (RGC) took was anything but lucky.
Three of them were killed and around 50 more injured as a passenger bus rammed theirs at Katakhali on the outskirts of Rajshahi city yesterday.
The dead are Sharmin Akhtar, final year student of Management; Mahbuba Haque Tania, 1st year student of Social Work; and Beauty Khatun, 4th year student of Islamic History, said college Principal Hobibur Rahman.
According to the survivors and police, the college bus carrying them was going to Baneshwar, barely a half-an-hour journey, to drop the students home. When it reached the Rajshahi Jute Mills on the Dhaka-Rajshahi Highway, a Rajshahi-bound Islam Travels bus collided head on with the 'Lucky' around 12:30pm.
The bus carrying female students then veered off the road and fell into a roadside ditch.
Five units of Rajshahi University Fire Service station rushed to the spot and took the injured to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) where Sharmin, Tania and Beauty died, said Officer-in-Charge Alamgir Hossain of Motihar Police Station.
Seventeen of the injured were being treated at the RMCH while others were given first aid.
Drivers of both the buses fled after the accident and the vehicles were taken to Motihar Police Station.
The college principal, the deputy commissioner and the police super of Rajshahi visited the accident spot and the injured at the RMCH.
The college authority handed over the bodies to their families along with Tk 20,000 compensation for each in the afternoon. Besides, Rajshahi Education Board and the Rajshahi DC gave each of the families Tk 20,000 and Tk 10,000 respectively.
The district administration would bear the cost of the treatment of the injured, DC Mezbah Uddin Ahmed said.
Though some RGC students alleged that most of the college buses were not roadworthy and their drivers unskilled, the college principal rejected it.
“The bus was in a better condition than other college buses. It was running slowly. But another bus hit it from the opposite direction," Hobibur Rahman told The Daily Star.
The college has announced a three-day mourning to pay respect to the dead and a three-member committee has been formed by the district administration to investigate the incident.
Comments