Road crashes leave 11 dead in three districts

Eleven people, including a five-year-old boy, were killed and several people were injured in separate road accidents in Jashore, Kushtia and Dinajpur today.

In Jashore Sadar upazila, a speeding heavy vehicle, locally known as a power truck, hit a van before ramming into a battery-run easy-bike around 11:00am, leaving three people dead on the spot

The deceased were identified as Mohammad Ayub Ali, 43, an easy-bike driver from the Ghuni Purbapara area of Sadar upazila; Brishti Saha, 24, wife of Sujon Saha from the Ghoragacha Sahapara area; and their five-year-old son, Souvik Saha.

Confirming the accident on the Jashore-Khulna highway, Officer-in-Charge Md Masum Khan of Jashore Kotwali Police Station said, “Locals tried to set the covered van on fire. Police and firefighters reached the spot and brought the situation under control.”

The truck driver has been detained, and police said they are investigating the exact cause of the accident while legal proceedings are underway.

In Kushtia, three people were killed and at least 20 others injured in the road accident on the Kushtia-Rajbari regional highway in Khoksa upazila around 11:30am.

The identities of the deceased could not be confirmed immediately.

OC Abu Obayed of Kushtia Highway Police Station, said a Tanha Paribahan bus was heading towards Kushtia from Rajbari when it nearly collided with a van. While trying to avoid the van, the bus crashed into a sand-laden truck coming from the opposite direction before plunging into a roadside ditch.

Md Ariful Haque, health and family planning officer of Khoksa upazila, said two bodies were kept at the upazila health complex.

He said 20 injured passengers were brought there for treatment, while four critically injured people were referred to the 250-bed Kushtia General Hospital.

Residential Medical Officer Iqbal Hasan said one woman among the critically injured patients died after being taken to the hospital.

In Dinajpur, five people, including three youths and an eight-year-old girl, were killed in separate road accidents in Dinajpur’s Ghoraghat and Birganj upazilas on Saturday.

In Ghoraghat, three motorcycle riders were killed after their bike collided head-on with a truck on the Dinajpur-Gobindaganj regional highway in the Raniganj Bazar area around 8:45am.

The victims are Al Amin, 16, son of Mosharraf Hossain of Nurpur village; Soikat Hossain, 18, son of Solim Uddin of Mogolishpur village; and Abdul Kaiyum, 20, of Afsarabad Colony under Singra union of the upazila.

Ghoraghat Police Station OC Shahidul Islam said the motorcycle entered the highway from a village road and collided with a Dinajpur-bound goods-laden truck, leaving Kaiyum dead on the spot and two others dead at Ghoraghat Upazila Health Complex.

Police seized the truck and detained its helper, while a case was filed under the Road Transport Act, he added.

In another accident, LPG-run three-wheeler driver Prodip Chandra Ghosh, 58, was killed after a truck hit his vehicle on the Thakurgaon-Dinajpur highway in Birganj around 10:30am.

Dashmile Highway Police Station OC Nirmal Chandra Mahanta said the three-wheeler lost control and crashed into a roadside tree after being hit by the truck in the Kabirajhat area.
Prodip was taken to Birganj Upazila Health Complex, where doctors declared him dead.

Besides, eight-year-old Morsalina was killed after a speeding tractor hit her bicycle on a rural road in Birganj’s Deuli Munshipara area on Saturday afternoon.

Birganj Police Station OC Md Shariful Islam said the child was returning home when the tractor struck her. She later died at Thakurgaon Sadar Hospital.

The tractor driver fled the scene, while police were preparing to file a case, he added.

[Our Benapole, Thakurgaon and Kushtia correspondents contributed to this report.]