Road crash kills 12 in Gopalganj

At least 12 people, including four of a family, were killed and 20 others injured when a bus and a human haulier collided head-on in Gopalganj Sadar upazila yesterday.

Quoting locals, Monirul Islam, officer-in-charge of Sadar Police Station, said both the vehicles fell into a ditch along the Dhaka-Khulna highway in Horidaspur area following the collision around 5:30pm.

Twelve people, including 11 passengers of the vehicles and a passer-by, were killed on the spot, he said, adding the injured were taken to Gopalganj General Hospital. 

The deceased were identified as Moriom Akter, 8, daughter of one Al-Amin Sheikh of Sultanshahi village in Gopalganj Sadar, her brother Nayan Sheikh, 11, Al-Amin's mother-in-law Ranu Begum, 45, and his sister-in-law Meghla Akter, 20.

The children were returning from their maternal grandfather's house in Madaripur's Songkordi village, said a shell-shocked Al-Amin.

The other deceased include Rajib Mollah, 20, driver of the three-wheeler, Saddam Mollah, 25, of Horidaspur village, the passer-by,  Morshed Gazi, 40, of Dumdia village, Jane Alom Sheikh, 37, of Taybaria village, and Joglu Sikder, 35, of Chandadigholia village of the same upazila.

Identities of the three others could not be known immediately.

Moklesur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Gopalganj, and Mohammad Saidur Rahman, superintendent of police in the district, visited the spot after the accident.