Published : 02 Apr 2025, 04:06 PM
After passing a bend in the road, the driver hit the brakes. The vehicle swerved and slammed into an incoming microbus. Within seconds, another microbus crashed into the damaged microbus from behind.
Members of the Highway Police and Fire Service and Civil Defence provided details of the accident that occurred on the Chattogram-Cox’s Bazar Highway in Upazila’s Chunti Jangalia area on Wednesday.
As many as 10 people from the microbus have died after the vehicle collided head-on with a Relax Paribahan bus. Seven people died on the spot, according to Shuvoranjan Chakma, chief of Dohazari Highway Police Station.
Four more people injured in the accident were sent to Chattogram Medical College Hospital where a child between 10-12 years of age and a man between 30-35 years of age later died, confirmed Dr Susmita Saha of the hospital’s emergency department.
A child and a young woman injured in the accident are still receiving treatment at the hospital, she said.
A man died at the Lohagara Health Complex in Padua, according to Atiqur Rahman, chief of Lohagara Police Station.
Police identified five of the 10 deceased in the crash, four of them from the same family.
Those identified are Dilip Biswas, 43, Sadhana Biswas, 37, Aradhya Biswas, 7, Ashish Mandul, 50, and Durjoy Mandul, 18.
Dilip and Sadhana were a married couple and Aradhya was their daughter. Ashish was Sadhana’s brother.
Wednesday’s crash is the third serious accident in the Jangalia area in three days. Five people were killed in an accident on Monday, which was Eid day. On Tuesday, two microbuses veered off the road and overturned into a ditch, injuring 12.
Dohazari Highway Police Sub-Inspector Md Abdul Matin said, “Today’s accident occurred 30-35 yards away from Monday’s accident scene.”
Mohammad Enamul Hasan, Lohagara Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO), or Upazila’s executive officer, said: “There’s a bend near the location of the road crash. As the driver hit the brakes after exiting the bend, the bus crashed into the oncoming microbus head-on.”
Firefighter Md Bakul Hossain cited the locals and said, “The bus swerved after hitting the brakes. The oncoming microbus was approaching very fast…”
He added, “Another microbus then slammed into the first one. But no one in the second microbus was hurt. It didn’t sustain much damage either.”
Rakhal Chandra Rudra, Lohagara Fire Station chief, said: “Upon arriving at the scene, I saw some [injured] people still moving, rescued them and sent them to the Upazila health complex. But the bodies of seven people showed no signs of life. They may have died immediately after the accident.”