Seven killed, 79 injured in road accidents across three districts

Seven people were killed and 79 injured in seven separate road accidents in Chattogram, Lakshmipur and Faridpur over the past 24 hours.

Chattogram accounted for four deaths and 27 injuries in five accidents, while three people were killed and 12 injured in Lakshmipur. Another 40 people were injured in a collision in Faridpur.

In Chattogram, a bus helper was killed and 18 garment workers were injured when two buses carrying workers from the same factory collided in the Patenga area around 7am today (9 November). One bus lost control while attempting to overtake the other and hit a road divider.

The deceased, Md Alomgir, 45, was taken to Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH), where doctors declared him dead. The injured workers, all employed by Vancot Ltd at the Korean Export Processing Zone, included 12 women and six men.

Babul Das, the factory’s security officer, told TBS that the buses were carrying workers to the factory when the accident occurred. Police seized one bus and detained its driver.

In two separate accidents on the Chattogram-Cox’s Bazar highway in Lohagara, a woman, aged around 50, was killed after being hit by a bus and run over by another vehicle in Adhunagar around 1am. Later that morning, a Hanif Paribahan bus hit cyclist Shamsul Islam, 70, in Chunati, killing him. The bus driver fled.

In another accident near Nazirhat, an auto-rickshaw carrying Ujjal Shil, 45, and his family crashed into a parked truck while they were returning from Kali Puja. Ujjal later died in hospital.

At least eight people, including two children, were injured when a speeding private car hit two CNG-run auto-rickshaws in Hathazari’s Mirzapur Union around 4:30pm. Five of the seriously injured were taken to CMCH.

In Lakshmipur, three people were killed and 12 injured when a passenger bus overturned in the Char Chamita area of the Dhaka-Lakshmipur highway around noon today. The injured were taken to Lakshmipur Sadar Hospital.

In Faridpur, 40 people were injured when a Golden Paribahan bus collided with a rod-laden truck in Morichbazar, Madhukhali, on the Dhaka-Khulna highway this morning.

The truck was manoeuvring to unload goods in front of an iron and steel factory when the bus, travelling from Kaliganj to Dhaka, hit it. The injured were taken to Madhukhali Upazila Health Complex. The trapped truck driver had to have one leg amputated to free him before being transferred to Faridpur Medical College Hospital.

Police seized both vehicles and said legal action was underway.