Reckless driving, overtaking main reasons
Reckless driving by two bus drivers and a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre by one of them caused the Monday's tragic road accident on the Dhaka-Rajshahi highway in Natore, found a probe committee.
The five-member body also revealed that the two buses of Keya Paribahan and Othoi Paribahan did not have fitness certificates.
The committee led by Khan Mohammed Ali, additional district magistrate of Natore, submitted the report to Deputy Commissioner Mashiur Rahman around 9:00pm yesterday. The report included 17 recommendations.
Meanwhile, the district administration yesterday confirmed the deaths of three more people in the accident, taking the death toll to 36 in one of the deadliest road crashes in the country's recent history.
“A mistake was made while preparing the list of the dead,” the DC told reporters. The probe report will be sent to the ministry concerned soon, he added.
Each of the victims' families will be handed over a compensation of Tk 1 lakh within a day or two, said Mashiur.
On Monday afternoon, the Rajshahi-bound Keya Paribahan bus and Gurudaspur-bound Othoi Paribahan local bus collided head-on on the Bonpara-Hatikamrul highway, causing the casualties.
The government launched the probe into the incident and directed the committee to submit its report by three to four days.
Reckless driving and risky overtaking manoeuvres by drivers go on unabated on the highways, thanks to lax enforcement of traffic rules.
A total of 49,847 road crashes occurred in the country in last 15 years, killing 42,526 people and injuring around 39,000, said a report of Accident Research Institute at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. The report was prepared on the basis of police records. The actual number is presumed to be much higher as many accidents remain unreported.
The government, however, insisted that they are taking measures to cut down the number of accidents.
Comments