14 die as truck ploughs into five vehicles

A car and three battery-run auto-rickshaws were crawling in a queue to pay the toll for the Gabkhan Bridge in Jhalakathi around 1:30pm yesterday.

A small truck carrying furniture ahead of the car paid its toll and trundled on at the northern end of the bridge. 

Then the car paid the toll to the collector. The moment it was about to accelerate away, an out-of-control cement-laden truck ploughed into the vehicles in the queue crushing them and the people inside them.

Eyewitnesses were stunned as they could only watch the three-wheelers being reduced to scrap metal.

The truck shoved the car into the rear of the smaller truck. The car was crushed beyond recognition and the smaller truck flipped to its side.

Fourteen people, including six of a family and four guests of a wedding reception, were killed. Twelve others were injured, five of them critically.

Md Mohitul Islam, additional superintendent of police in Jhalakathi, told The Daily Star last night that the trucker, who has been apprehended, claimed that his brakes had failed. He also said the driver did not have the licence to drive heavy vehicles.

The crash on the Khulna-Barishal road happened less than 30 hours after a bus and a truck collided in Faridpur, leaving 14 people, including five of a family, dead.

Yesterday's crash killed Nahida Akhter, 27, resident of Sangor village under Jhalakathi's Rajapur upazila; her husband Hasibur Rahman, 32; their four-year-old daughter Takia, and eight-month-old son Tahmid; Nahida's sister Nipa, 22; and her husband Imran Hossain, 26; Nazrul Islam, 35, of Gabkhan village; Shafiqul Majhi, 50, of Ostakhan village; Atiqur Rahman Sadi, 11, of Shekhertek Nowapara; Tahmina, 25, of Kathalia Talgachhiya village; her daughter Nurjahan, 7; Sonia Begum, 30, of Uttar Southpur village; Ruhul Amin of Swarupkathia, and Shahidul Islam.

Seven of the deceased, including the six of a family, were in the car.

Nipa and Imran were newlyweds.

They along with her sister's family were heading to Barishal from Jhalakathi's Rajapur upazila in the car to rent a home for the newlyweds, said their union parishad member.

Witnesses and sources said six of the deceased were in the auto-rickshaws. The fourteenth person to have died, Shahidul Islam, was asking for alms on the side of the road.

Of the six killed in the autorickshaws, four on two vehicles were going to the wedding reception.

Nazrul Islam, 35, was one of the four. Nazrul's mother Mira Begum was inconsolable after she saw her son's body.

"How will I live without my son?" she was saying.

One of their relatives said it was supposed to be a happy moment for all as they were to return home with the bride and groom. Instead, they returned with bodies.

Six people died on the spot and six others were declared dead after being taken to Jhalakathi Sadar Hospital, said Shahidul Islam, officer-in-charge of Jhalakathi Sadar Police Station.

Two people died of their injuries at the Barishal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital, said the hospital's Director Saiful Islam.

Nine others were being treated there and five of them were in critical condition, he added.

Jhalakathi Civil Surgeon HM Zahirul Islam said three others were undergoing treatment at Jhalakathi Sadar Hospital.

Jhalakathi Superintendent of Police Mohammad Afruzul Haque Tutul said apart from arresting truck driver Al Amin Hawlader, police also detained his assistant Nazmul Sheikh and seized the truck.

The SP told journalists that Al Amin was not the regular driver of the vehicle and that he was filling in for someone else.

CCTV footage of the accident, apparently collected from the toll plaza, went viral on social media.

[Our Barishal and Pirojpur correspondents contributed to this report]