Woman killed as train rams rickshaw
A woman was killed and two of her children and a rickshaw puller were injured when a train hit a rickshaw and two other vehicles at Khilgaon level crossing in the capital yesterday.
The dead is Ratna Khandaker, 35, wife of Ripon Khandakar of the city's Goran area.
Ratna along with her two children Khandaker Ashfaq Rifat, 14, and Atika Sultana Roshni, 6, was on her way to Dhaka Central Jail to meet her husband Ripon, a BNP activist. Police detained him on December 10 from a procession in front of the BNP central office in Nayapaltan, said the victim's relatives.
Witnesses said around 7:30am, a container train from Chittagong passed through the level crossing towards Kamalapur Railway Station. The gates at the level crossing were closed.
Unwilling to wait to cross the level crossing, a car driver from Khilgaon pulled on a gate and moved forward. A CNG-run three-wheeler and the rickshaw followed the car.
Suddenly the Lalmonirhat-bound Lalmoni Express came from the opposite direction and hit the vehicles and the rickshaw.
Locals thronged the spot after the train left and found the woman lying dead on the road and the two children and the rickshaw puller groaning beside her.
The drivers of the private car and the auto-rickshaw escaped the scene, witness Milon Rahman, a hotel worker, told The Daily Star.
The car and rickshaw were badly damaged, while the auto-rickshaw was damaged partially in the accident.
Rifat and Roshni were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with head injuries and bruises on their bodies. Rickshaw puller Shahid Miah was undergoing treatment at the hospital for injuries to his head and legs.
Contacted, Transport Officer (Dhaka) of Railway Department AM Salahuddin said a five-member committee led by him was formed to investigate the incident.
Five railway men in three shifts a day carry out their duties to keep five gates closed at the level crossing when trains cross it, he added.
Trains pass through the level crossing over 120 times a day.
A case was filed, said railway sources, with Kamalapur Railway Police Station against the unidentified drivers of the car and the auto-rickshaw in connection with the accident.
Comments