15 killed in seperate road crashes in western Bangladesh

By

Sheuli Akter

At least fifteen people have been killed and scores hurt in seperate road crashes in western Bangladesh.

Seven passengers were killed and thirty others injured as a bus collided head on with another bus in Rajshahi district, some 256 km west of the capital Dhaka on Tuesday afternoon.

Humayun Kabir, a Rajshahi  Police official, said the accident occured at about 1:30 p.m.(local time), leaving seven people dead on the spot and thirty others injured.

The injured were rushed to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital for treatment, Kabir stated.

Also on Tuesday morning, in another head on collission, eight people were killed and ten others received injuries in Sirajganj district, some 134 km northwest of capital Dhaka.

Mohammad Abul Hasnat, an assistant superintendent of Sirajganj Police, said the accident took place as a lorry collided head on with a three wheeler, locally known as nosimon, at about 6 a.m.(local time), that left five people dead on the spot and thirteen injured.

“Among the injured three people died on the way to hospital,” he said.

Bangladesh has one of the highest fatality rates for road accidents in the world due mainly to shoddy highways, poorly maintained vehicles, violation of traffic rules by inept drivers and lack of monitoring of the traffic department.

Every year thousands of people are killed in road accidents in Bangladesh, of which approximately 75 percent of fatalities occur in rural areas.

Sheuli Akter

Sheuli Akter, from Bangladesh, is a Special Correspondent and Editor of NsNewsWire, (Bangladesh’s First Press Newswire).  Previously she had worked for Bangladesh’ top news agency, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) and top newspaper (now defunct) The Bangladesh Observer. She also gained an honourable mention in the first ever World Media Summit WMS Awards for ‘Exemplary News Professionals in Developing Countries’, receiving the award in Beijing in January 2015.