5 die as bus rams ambulance on Mawa Expressway in Munshiganj

Five people have been killed and six others have been injured after a bus rammed an ambulance carrying a patient on the Dhaka-Mawa Highway in Munshiganj’s Sirajdikhan.

The accident occurred in the Upazila’s Neemtala area around 12:30pm on Thursday, according to Hansara Highway Police Outpost chief Abdul Quader Zilani.

The body of a woman is at the police outpost and the rest of the injured were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, he said.

Mohammad Faruk, officer-in-charge of the DMCH Police Outpost, said: “The bodies of four people killed in an accident on the expressway are at the hospital. Six other people injured in the accident are receiving treatment.”

Four of the dead are Abdus Samad Fakir, his son Billal Fakir, his daughter Afsana, identified by a single name, and the ambulance driver, yet to be identified.

The family were residents of Mithapukur in Madaripur Sadar Upazila. The other deceased have yet to be identified.

Police and witnesses say that Billal’s wife Rozina Begum, 30, is pregnant. Her probable delivery date was May 23. On Wednesday night, she suddenly began to experience pain. An ambulance was hired and Rozina and nine other members of the family left for Dhaka.

They were to seek maternity care at a private hospital in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi. A tyre on the ambulance burst in the expressway’s Neemtala area. The driver then parked the ambulance on the right side of the road and began conducting repairs, according to police.

Some of the passengers were inside the vehicle and others were standing next to it. As the repairs were nearing the end, a Golden Line Paribahan bus rammed the ambulance hard from behind, killing one on the spot.

Saiful Islam Shanto, the bus driver’s assistant, said the vehicle, bound for Dhaka’s Abdullahpur from Kushtia, came across the ambulance on the side of the road as driver Faysal, identified by a single name, hit the brakes, but failed to stop, slamming into the ambulance from behind in the process.

Officer Zilani said that Highway Police had seized the two vehicles involved in the accident. However, the bus driver has yet to be detained.