5 killed as bus flips into ditch

At least eight people, including a schoolboy, were killed and 25 others injured in road accidents in four districts since Friday evening.

The deceased were identified as Reazuddin, 20, of Mithapukur upazila in Rangpur; Bikash Chandra Shah, 48, of Kalihati upazila in Tangail; Sunil Kumar Sarker, 50, of Bedka in Tangail; Bidyut Mia, 32, a bus helper at Doyana in Lalmonirhat; Mahabubul Islam, 22, of Boterchara in Lalmonirhat; Emon Mia, 12, of Netrakona; and Rafiqul Islam Sheikh, 45, of Pirojpur.

Of the victims, five were killed in a single accident in Gaibandha when a speeding bus overturned and fell into a ditch in Balua area under Sundarganj upazila in the early hours yesterday.

The accident occurred when the driver of Lalmonirhat-bound bus Barkat Paribahan, which started from Dhaka, lost control over the steering on Bogura-Rangpur Highway around 3:00am, said Akhteruzzaman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Gobindaganj highway police.

The driver managed to escape but his helper was killed in the accident, he added.

Rafi, a resident of Aditmari in Lalmonirhat and a passenger of the bus, said, “I was asleep. Suddenly I woke up following a huge jerk but could not remember anything more. Later, I found myself in the hospital.”

“The driver looked drowsy and was driving the bus carelessly from the Jamuna Bridge. He narrowly escaped at least three accidents,” said Aminesh Chandra, 30, another passenger, who lives in Kaliganj of Lalmonirhat.

Another survivor Sajib Mia, who was also heading towards Kaliganj, said, “The driver was driving recklessly and was trying to overtake every vehicle on his way.”

The district administration has allocated Tk 10,000 for the families of each of the deceased for funeral services.

In Netrakona, a third grader was crushed under the wheels of a human hauler at Keronkhola village under Durgapur upazila on Friday evening.

Locals and police said Emon was playing with other children near their house adjacent to a road. At one stage, he stepped on the road and was run over by the vehicle around 6:00pm, said Mizanur Rahman, OC of Durgapur police.

In Bagerhat, a person was killed and seven others including three children were injured in a road accident at the western part of the Baleshwar Bridge in Morelganj upazila yesterday morning.

The accident occurred when an auto-rickshaw collided head-on with a Khulna-bound bus of Dhanshiri Paribahan in Mahispura area around 11:30am. The deceased and the injured were the passengers of the auto-rickshaw, said locals and witnesses.

As the accident spot is close to Pirojpur, Fire Service and Civil Defence members from the district rushed to the scene and took the victims to Pirojpur.

The deceased's body was kept at Pirojpur Sadar Hospital morgue for an autopsy and the injured were sent to Khulna Medical College Hospital, said Nani Gopal Roy, resident medical officer of the hospital.

In Chattogram, students put up a barricade on Chattogram-Cox's Bazar Highway in Shikalbaha area under Karnaphuli Police Station for around three hours after a student was hit by a human hauler in front of her school around 10:00am yesterday.

Locals said Nazma Akhter, a student of class nine at Patiya AJ Chowdhury Multipurpose High School, was hit by the human hauler when she was going to her school.

Critically injured Nazma was rushed to a private hospital in Chattogram city, said Mohammad Alamgir, OC of Karnaphuli police.

Elsewhere in Dhaka, an elderly woman was killed and her daughter was injured in the Karwan Bazar area last night when the bus they were in rammed into a central reservation, where construction of the metro rail line was going on.

The deceased was identified as Jarina Begum, 60. Her daughter Baby Akhter, 30, was injured in the incident. 

Both were returning to their Mirpur home from a relative's house in Fakirapool, said the injured woman.

Faisalur Rahman, senior station officer of Tejgaon Fire Station, said the driver of the Bikalpa Paribahan's Mirpur-Motijheel bound bus lost control and rammed into the central reservation on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue in front of Northern University around 10:45pm.

The mother was declared dead at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), said Bacchhu Mia, in-charge of the hospital's police outpost.

Baby, who hails from Daudkandi of Cumilla, works at a pharmaceutical company. She has been taking treatment at the emergency unit of DMCH.

(Our Dhaka, Gaibandha, Mymensingh, Pirojpur and Chattogram correspondents contributed to the story.)